While President Bush has been over the Atlantic, meeting with leaders of the other seven members of the "G8" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in Panama City, meeting with America's southern neighbors, according to the U.S. State Department. Bush's G8 summit will naturally get more media attention, because it contains the eight most powerful, industrialized Western nations in the world. But Rice's trip will strengthen cooperation between the governments of the Western Hemisphere, making America's ties with its regional neighbors stronger.Rice told Panamanian television station Telemundo in praise of the counterterrorism efforts of the governments of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay " Tri-border region, where the three South American countries touch. The three countries have recently created an intelligence center in the region, operating from the Brazilian city of Foz de Iguacu. Brazilians opened the center, and then extended invitations to his neighbors to participate. The new center is to gather intelligence on terrorist fundraising, arms and drug trafficking and other illegal cross border activities in area.Rice praised cooperation between the countries. She said that the fight against terrorism must be international in scope if it is to succeed. She mentioned the recently revealed terrorist plot against JFK International Airport in New York as an example of the benefits of international intelligence-sharing and counterterrorism efforts. Several of the conspirators considered involved in this plot were from Latin American countries of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, and information from these countries was essential to reveal the document. The turmoil in the Tri-border area is that there is a large Muslim immigrants numbering about 50,000 people, within which there may be support for fundraising by terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The region is also known as a hotspot for drug trafficking, money laundering and arms trafficking. These features, along with the ability to escape into several neighboring countries, making it an ideal location for a terrorist presence. This was the rationale for the U.S. to participate in establishing the "3 +1 Group on Tri-Border Area Security" in this region. The group includes Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and the United States in a participatory role. Tri-border area is also a Tri-City region, which consists of Bolivia's Ciudad del Este (240 000 inhabitants), Argentina's Puerto Iguazú (28 100 inhabitants), and Brazil's tourist center, Foz do Iguacu (int 190.000). The cities that meet where the Iguazu and Parana Rivers converge, the site of a beautiful and majestic series of waterfalls that was the site of the 1987 Oscar-winning movie The Mission, starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. De Niro and irons played 18-century Jesuit missionaries to South America. The region was also contested at this time, as shown in the film. The region was also the center of one type of illicit trade - at the time the trade in human slavery. One of the themes of that film was the opportunity for crime and inhumanity that occurs in an area where the governing authority is unclear or shared.The varied terrain, rivers and small waterfalls making the region a geographically wonderful tourist spot, but also a magnet for illegal activity. The terrain is very difficult to patrol and defend. In 2002 and 2006, the U.S. Treasury Department issued memos stating that there are "clear examples" of "Islamic groups in the region who finance terrorism." These groups are in the three cities, and the work of rivers and suburbs in the region . Paraguayan side of the region is of particular concern, since Paraguay has no national law against providing funding for terrorist organizations. According to the Washington Post, gave Paraguay international immunity to 400 U.S. soldiers in May 2006, according to the Washington Post, "joint military exercises, such as programs to control urban terrorists, public security and humanitarian assistance." But Paraguay has decided not to renew this immunity, making the region once more risky from the U.S. viewpoint.Sources: U.S. State Department, http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=June & x = 20070606134703x1eneerg1.139468e-02Washington Post, Paraguay Hardens U.S. Military Stance, http:/ / www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301627.html
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