Farnsworth to Congress: Allowing Iran into Latin America is "Playing With Fire"

Sylvia Longmire
Examiner
October 27, 2009

The presence of Iran in Latin America was the topic on Capitol Hill today, as several prominent academics testified at an open hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.

Testimony was presented by The Honorable Eliot L. Engel, The Honorable Gary L. Ackerman, The Honorable Brad Sherman, Mr. Eric Farnsworth, Ms. Dina Siegel Vann, Mr. Douglas Farah, Mohsen M. Milani, Ph.D., and Norman A. Bailey, Ph.D.

Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas, expressed concern over the potential for Iran to exert a negative and destabilizing influence in a region that desires, but sometimes grapples with, democracy.

“Countries where democracy is weak, where the institutions of the state are ineffective, or where democratically elected leaders have in fact curtailed democratic institutions for their own purposes have proven, time and time again, to be the most likely portals through which unhelpful influences such as Iran are introduced into the region.”

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