BANNED in Latin America Act

This section formally designates the short titles for the Act as the 'Barring Adversarial Networks and Notorious Extremist Destabilizers in Latin America Act' and the 'BANNED in Latin America Act.' These titles serve as concise and memorable references for the legislation, aiding in public and legislative discourse.

This provision requires the Secretary of State to submit a comprehensive strategy to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs within 180 days of the bill's enactment. The strategy's primary objective is to counter Iran's and Hezbollah's propaganda networks and influence operations throughout Latin America, addressing a perceived national security threat.

The required strategy must include specific initiatives aimed at enhancing the United States' capability to identify, monitor, and disrupt malign networks operated by Iran and Hezbollah. This explicitly extends to their collaborative activities with academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) across Latin America, indicating a focus on covert or indirect influence mechanisms.

The strategy must detail a framework for disrupting Hezbollah's Al Mayadeen Espanol media platform. This framework is to be modeled on previous actions taken against similar propaganda outlets like Al-Manar and Press TV, and will involve measures such as sanctions, designations, and cooperation with regional partners to limit its broadcasting reach and digital presence, thereby curtailing its propaganda dissemination.

The strategy is required to include a plan to expose Iran's Al Mustafa International University network and its affiliated entities. This involves active collaboration with local governments in Latin America to address the network's alleged role in radicalization and recruitment, which is seen as serving Iran's ideological and terrorist objectives.

The strategy must incorporate initiatives to weaken the ability of Iranian- and Hezbollah-linked individuals to engage in illicit activities such as drug and contraband smuggling, and money laundering. It also mandates actions to restrict their exploitation of natural resources for financial gain, specifically citing illicit gold mining in Venezuela. Furthermore, the strategy requires working with partners and allies to counter Hezbollah's document fraud operations, including the production of falsified passports, birth certificates, and driver's licenses.