All of Latin America must realize that terrorism is a growing threat in the Americas and that the only way to defeat extremist guerrillas like al Qaeda is to join ranks, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday.

"We are seeing the benefits of economic cooperation among countries" in the Western Hemisphere, he said. "Now, we need to strengthen security cooperation so we can see the benefits there."Security is the essential foundation for further progress for all of the people of the Americas.

While U.S. officials have suggested that al Qaeda is moving into the region, Washington has offered no evidence. Some experts are skeptical.

"Rumsfeld is trying to assert that Middle Eastern terrorist groups are active in Latin American. The problem is, apart from possibly classified information, proof has not been seen," said Carl Cira, director of the Summit of the Americas Center at Florida International University in Miami.

Speaking on the eve of a meeting of defense ministers from North and Latin America, Rumsfeld said drug trafficking, kidnapping and criminal gangs south of the border were but an example of the instability threatened by international guerrilla groups apparently moving into the region.

He said that both Hizbollah and Hamas, groups that have mounted bombing attacks on Israel and are labeled by Washington as terrorists, are raising funds in Latin America. But he stopped short of putting al Qaeda on that list.

The United States blames Hizbollah guerrillas for the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. Leaders of Argentina's Jewish community say the attack was planned by Islamic militants based along the country's lawless border with Brazil and Paraguay.Two years previously, a bomb killed 28 people at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires.

(From Reuters, November 17, 2004)

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