Statement by Mr. Alberto Mendes Cardoso,
Head of Delegation OF Brazil
to the Second Regular Session of CICTE
 

“If we know our enemy and ourselves, we have no reason to fear the outcome of a hundred battles.  If we know ourselves but not our enemy, for every victory achieved we will also suffer a defeat.  If we know neither our enemy nor ourselves, we will be defeated in every battle."

Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 3

At the outset, Mr. Chairman, let me compliment you for the excellent job you are doing at the head of the Inter-American Committee on Terrorism, and let me assure you that the Brazilian delegation is fully at your disposal in terms of helping this meeting achieve its objective.

          I also salute Dr César Gaviria, Secretary General of the OAS, under whose direction our regional organization has sought, in a spirit of fraternity, to respond swiftly and effectively to the great challenge posed by the scourge of terrorism.
     
          Terrorism is not a recent phenomenon.  Not one of these civilizations that enrich and humanize our planet can say that it has not known the phenomena of violence and terror within its boundaries.  Since the 1960s, organizations such as the United Nations and the OAS itself have been dedicated to combating it, yet nearly always in a reactive and sporadic manner.  Most of the 14 international and inter-American conventions against terrorism are examples of this fact.  In fact the CICTE, created in 1998, met in Miami in October 1999, in what was to mark the beginning of its operations.  The following meeting was held only because the bloody events of September 11 focused our attention on the committee.  The persistence of terrorist acts calls for a continuous effort on our part to combat them.

           Like many other countries, Brazil offered its emphatic solidarity to the people and government of the United States in the wake of the September attacks.  That solidarity, however, is not limited to words, but also extends to action.  Within the OAS, we have taken the initiative to propose the convening of the Consultative Body of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, the Rio Treaty.  We have participated actively in the work of CICTE and the Working Group to Prepare the Inter-American Convention against Terrorism.

           On the international front, Brazil has signed all 14 conventions against terrorism.  Ten of these conventions are already incorporated into our domestic law, and four are in the process of approval.

           Article 4 of the Federal Constitution of 1988 repudiates terrorism and racism.  Under Brazilian legislation, terrorism is considered a common and repugnant crime; it is not open to bail or subject to pardon or amnesty; persons convicted of such crimes cannot benefit from the right to "graduation of sentence."  In addition to these measures, our country adopted in 1989 a federal program of victim and witness protection, an indispensable instrument for dealing properly and promptly with crimes in general, and with terrorism in particular.

            With respect to the financing of terrorism, Brazil is committed to combating this new form of crime.  Since 1991, with the incorporation of the 1988 Vienna Convention against Drug Trafficking into our domestic legislation, money laundering has been a crime in our country.  Law 9613 of 1998 defines this crime, establishes a list of criminal antecedents, among which is terrorism, and details the applicable procedural rules.  More recently, Supplementary Law No. 105, of 2001, provides for the lifting of secrecy from the operations of financial institutions in order to investigate possible crimes, including terrorism.  Brazil is the only full member of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) within the Americas to have complied fully with all 28 recommendations of the agency that call for specific actions.  It is important to note, moreover, that of the eight special recommendations against the financing of terrorism adopted by FATF in October 2001, Brazil has already complied with seven.

            On November 10 of last year, the Brazilian government signed the Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and issued decrees for enforcing resolutions 1333 (2001) and 1373 (2001) of the United Nations Security Council.  The supply of financing for terrorist entities is also covered by other crimes stipulated in domestic legislation (formation of criminal gangs, evasion of foreign exchange regulations, etc.).

            In this context, it is important to note that, until now, our country has not identified within its territory any activities by organizations linked to the financing of terrorism, and therefore no bank accounts have been frozen nor have any funds linked to such activity been seized.

            There is an undeniable link between certain forms of organized crime and terrorism.  In a speech during the opening debate of the 56th United Nations General Assembly, in November 2001, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso stressed that "throughout the world, problems of public safety, drug trafficking and consumption, and arms smuggling are evils associated with terrorism, which we must stamp out."

             Thus, drug consumption, a scourge that affects all our countries, can contribute to the flourishing of terrorism, through the laundering of the funds used to purchase drugs.  President Cardoso suggested in his speech that a worldwide public opinion campaign be launched to make drug users in all countries aware of the fact that their behavior contributes, even if involuntarily, to the financing of terrorism.  "If we hope to strangle the flow of financing that terrorist cells use to sow destruction and death, we must drastically reduce drug consumption in our societies."

              Many years before the horrendous events in Washington and New York, cooperation against terrorism was already being pursued in MERCOSUR.  In 1996, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay created the Tripartite Command for the Triple Frontier, to coordinate police action and intelligence gathering in that region.  In November 1999, the MERCOSUR meeting of Ministers of the Interior and Justice approved the Reciprocal Cooperation and Coordination Plan for Regional Security, the framework in which the 4 states parties (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and the two associated states (Bolivia and Chile) have pooled their efforts in the operations and intelligence areas to combat various modalities of transnational organized crime, including terrorism.  In addition, the Brazilian state intelligence service, ABIN, has for many years been conducting joint operations with its counterpart services in friendly countries, in search of evidence of support for terrorism.

              In September 2001, the MERCOSUR Ministers of the Interior and of Justice approved the creation of a permanent working group to assess and propose joint and coordinated actions by the four countries against terrorism.

              Located in the very center of MERCOSUR, the Triple Frontier area has been a constant target of international suspicion for allegedly sheltering potential terrorists.  After more than a decade of continued surveillance by police and intelligence organizations, concrete evidence has yet come to light linking its inhabitants to terrorism.  Similarly, until now, no activities linked to the financing of that crime have been detected in the region.

              Nevertheless, we remain ready to investigate any report that reaches us about the presence of terrorists or their activities not only along the Triple Frontier but also at any other point within Brazil.  In this respect, we would ask the authorities at all levels of the countries represented here to cooperate with the police and intelligence bodies of our countries to allow them to pursue investigations of any information that may come to light, as a means of countering sensationalist speculation in the press.

              Since September 2000, Brazil has hosted meetings of the intelligence services of countries interested in forestalling the impact of the military component of the Plan Colombia within their territories.  A fourth meeting will be held this June, and its mandate will be expanded to include terrorism and drug trafficking.  The countries represented here are very welcome.

              We have in fact been conducting a wide-ranging struggle against terrorism, by modernizing our domestic legislation, by participating in the construction of international standards and bilateral and multilateral cooperation in order to prevent and suppress the activity of terrorist groups, and to cut off their sources of financing.  For us, cooperation is the natural approach when it comes to struggling against a common enemy.  We are, and have always been, ready to reinforce that cooperation even further, and to give it a more operational and less academic meaning.  Thus we may say that we have complied with Resolution No. 1 of the Twenty-third Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Relations of the Organization of American States, on strengthening hemispheric cooperation to prevent, combat, and eliminate terrorism.

               I should also note that the Brazilian report referring to enforcement of resolution AG/Res. 1373 (2001) was delivered on December 26 (i.e. before the deadline established in the resolution) to the Antiterrorism Committee of the United Nations Security Council.

               All the actions I have described are highly important and are indispensable to eliminating terrorism.  Meanwhile, we must admit that they are not enough, and that it is not sufficient to prevent and combat terrorist acts without a parallel effort to detect their origins, causes, and motivations.

               The Brazilian government firmly believes that democracy and economic stability in our countries are two of the major weapons available to us for combating terrorism.  For that reason, our cooperation should also include promoting economic and social development for our peoples, consolidating democracy and respect for human rights in our countries, as well as forging an indestructible alliance in the struggle against terrorism and organized crime.  In this context, initiatives to promote free trade must necessarily have economic and social development as their principal objective, with the progressive elimination of discrepancies in the well-being of our people.  Such exaggerated imbalances create a feeling of exclusion that in turn adds fuel to the destructive instinct that is always present in terrorist activities.

               President Fernando Henrique Cardoso recently declared his conviction that the implications of the attacks on the United States of America demand a renewed effort at dialogue and joint thinking internationally.  That task, as he sees it, must have two objectives:  to enhance cooperation in combating terrorism and at the same time to strengthen the foundations of a new world order, inspired by solidarity among nations and by the joint effort to promote development for all countries, large and small, rich and poor, and thus to minimize the imbalances of all kinds that still characterize international relations.