Weekly Report - 23 December 2003

The government of President Nicanor Duarte is hoping that the fact no terrorists have been found in the Triple Border area [WR-03-48] will not dissuade the US from helping make the area, where Paraguay meets Argentina and Brazil, easier to control. He wants US assistance and an `integrated' tripartite security organisation to `deactivate mafia-like organisations' which have recently branched out into the kidnapping business across these porous borders.