Cross-Border Counterterrorism Initiatives in South America

All South American States have identified the threat posed by terrorism — despite the public perception that the terrorist danger to the subregion is downward— and have gradually introduced efforts to prevent terrorist acts and the activity of terrorists across borders. Nonetheless, the subregion remains weak to terrorism financing; transnational organized crime; the illegal cross-border movement of funds, arms and people; and other hazards potentially linked to terrorism. Small numbers of South American citizens are known to have travelled to the battle zones of Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic in support of ISIL.

Some criminals exploit the financial system to support terrorists or actions of terrorism. Terrorist financiers and other criminals abuse the formal financial system, new payment methods such as Bitcoin and Ripple, traditional methods of value transfer such as hawala*, trade-based money-laundering, and cash couriers, especially in countries with non-existent or weak national anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) instruments.

To cope with this menace in South America, with allocation from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Counterterrorism, ABA ROLI is currently executing the Countering the Financing of Terrorism in South America Program, in collaboration with GovRisk and K2 Integrity. 

The Program delivers technical support to the governments, financial sector, and civil society of the Tri-Border Area (TBA)—Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay—to fight the financing of terrorism, thereby decreasing the capacity of terrorist organizations to transfer assets and conduct terrorist attacks.

Operating closely with central and local government agencies, financial institutions, and civil society, our organizations seek to leverage specialized expertise to support the three nations in meeting their commitments under the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on opposing the financing of terrorism (CFT), and the international standard on anti-money laundering (AML) set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

As a professional provider of training, technical assistance, and consulting expertise in matters of integrity, GovRisk fetches Since 2012, GovRisk has been a leading provider of AML/CFT technical service in Latin America for the UK Government and other international donors. GovRisk has provided backing to public sector stakeholders and civil society in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Cuba, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico and Panama. GovRisk brings a strong working association with key stakeholder groups in each of the TBA nations.

K2 Integrity specializes in AML/CFT, targeted economic sanctions regimes, and their performance in Latin America. K2 Integrity’s team is comprised of a peerless cadre of individuals who aided design and spearheading the post-9/11 CFT regime in the United States and globally, including through senior leadership roles at the FATF, the Egmont Group, the United States National Security Council, The White House, and the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI).

K2 Integrity operates jurisdictional terrorist financing risk assessments to enhance and update the understanding of terrorist financing-specific threats. Members of the K2 Integrity team have performed on sanctions at the highest levels of the United States Government and governments of other nations, including one Latin American country in the Tri-Border Area.

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