By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

Investigative efforts by South American and U.S. authorities dispel the notion that the “tri-border” region where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet is an unwatched hotbed for Islamist militant group recruiting and funding, according to Brazilian Ambassador Antonio Patriota.

The tri-border region has long been a source of concern for the United States and the subject of numerous media reports — usually citing intelligence sources — that say it has served as a meeting place for top terrorist operatives, a Western base for the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah and a bankroll for similar organizations.

Speaking at a Tuesday roundtable hosted by the George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, Patriota called those conclusions “myths,” saying the “Three Plus One” initiative that pools intelligence resources from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and the United States has turned up no evidence to support them.

“This is something that was exhaustively examined,” he said. “Successive meetings of Three Plus One have not been able to establish any terrorist link to the region.”

Patriota went on to say that suspicions of major funding for terrorist groups coming from the tri-border region are “very hard to substantiate” and that the area is “certainly” less of a provider than some large European cities. Some of the area’s residents of Palestinian descent do send money to Hamas, which is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department, he said. Patriota noted that the organization also has a political wing that funds social welfare programs in the Middle East, a distinction the United States does not recognize in its terrorism listing.

“It cannot be presumed and it has never been shown that any financing has gone to any military or violent initiative,” he said.

Furthermore, he labeled as unfair assertions from some national governments and media outlets that the area is an “ungoverned space.”

Patriota said Brazilian authorities began to pay attention to the large population of recently immigrated Palestinians in the region after a 1992 truck bomb attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed 29 and wounded more than 200.

The terrorist group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, and authorities said they suspected the perpetrators might have entered Argentina through the tri-border region. Two years later, the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 87 and injuring more than 100.

Sept. 11 Spur

Patriota said his government only began to take meaningful investigative action in the region after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

One of the biggest developments to come out of the post-9/11 mobilization was the creation of the Three Plus One initiative, he said. While the arrangement was not able to conclusively show terrorist activity at the tri-border, the member states recognize the usefulness of the arrangement and plan to maintain it, he said.

But he said the lack of a terrorism link does not mean the tri-border is free of problems.