Documents show Hezbollah targeted Israeli diplomats in Brazil in 1989

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – The terrorist group Hezbollah sent operatives to Brazil in order to commit attacks on diplomatic representatives of Israel, according to previously classified documents.

Latin America’s largest nation was targeted by the Lebanese terrorist group at least twice, most recently in 1989, reported the Correio Braziliense newspaper on Saturday. Hezbollah operatives planned to kidnap Israeli diplomats in both the capital city of Brasilia and in São Paulo. The information had been restricted to the military and top-level officials in Brazil and Israel until last month, and has now been made public.

In 1976, an alert was sent by the Israeli government to all its diplomatic missions and Brazil’s armed forces beefed up security at the Israeli Embassy.

In 1989, there is a comprehensive and detailed report, including names and photographs of suspects and original telegrams exchanged between Israel and Brazil. In the midst of the investigation, Brazilian federal police officers found that one of the alleged terrorists was in the country.

A telegram sent by the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry to security forces on August 16, 1989, warned that a Hezbollah terrorist was “on the way to entering the country to commit an attempt against that diplomatic mission and its members.” In the same message, the ministry warned about the presence of “another terrorist” on Brazilian soil, according to the newspaper.

Faced with such a scenario, the ministry called for “urgent” reinforcement of security around the Israeli Embassy and the residences of the ambassador and four Israeli diplomats.

One month later, a new alert can be seen bearing the names of four terrorists appointed by Israel as the executors of Hezbollah’s plan in Brasília. According to Israel, the group intended to kidnap the country’s consul-general in São Paulo or any diplomat who lived in Brasília, with an eye to negotiating for the release of Hezbollah prisoners in Israel.

The hunt for suspects and the security scheme surrounding the Israeli Embassy and its senior officials lasted one more month, until the Israeli intelligence service discovered that the four alleged terrorists had left Brazil for an unknown destination.

“This is an old story that sits in the past. However, we always need to be alert since Hezbollah has dormant cells in Latin America, there are large Shi’ite Muslim communities and there is the recent arrival of Syrian refugees. Today, we don’t send alerts, there is no need to panic, but we are always vigilant, for Israeli missions are a continuous target,” the Israeli consul in São Paulo, Dori Goren, told JTA.

In preparation for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games last year, the head of Rio’s Jewish federation was very guarded.

“There is always a first time, it has happened twice in Argentina and Brazil is not free of it,” Paulo Maltz told JTA, citing the Buenos Aires bombings of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and the AMIA Jewish center in 1994. “We’ll be on total alert,” added Maltz, who ended his term in December.