[News] The US threat to Latin America

[Anti-Imperialist News]

The US threat to Latin America

Tuesday 20 April 2010
Grace Livingstone
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/89397


The military agreement between the United States 
and Colombia has caused outcry in Latin America. 
Many governments suspect that the US is trying to 
cement its military hegemony in the region and 
maintain its ability to intervene in the affairs of Latin American countries.

The State Department says that the deal is all 
about security within Colombia and does not 
affect other countries, but Pentagon documents 
show that the US has far wider and more ominous objectives.

An US air force budget justification Bill, sent 
to Congress last year, states that Palanquero 
airbase in Colombia "provides an opportunity for 
conducting full spectrum operations throughout south America."

Full spectrum operations is Pentagon jargon for 
dominating the battle space on land, sea, air and 
space and can include the use of nuclear weapons.

The document went on: "Development of this CSL 
[Palanquero air base] provides a unique 
opportunity for full spectrum operations in a 
critical subregion of our hemisphere where 
security and stability is under constant threat 
from narcotics-funded terrorist insurgencies, 
anti-US governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disasters."

Although the offending text was hurriedly deleted 
before the Bill was passed, the document showed 
that the US was not intending to confine its 
operations to Colombia and regards Palanquero as 
an important strategic asset for its regional, and even global, operations.

This analysis is confirmed by another US air 
force document which was prepared for a US military conference last year.

The global en route strategy white paper, 
prepared by Air Mobility Command, shows how 
Colombia's Palanquero base will slot into a 
worldwide network of "en route" air bases giving 
the US airforce rapid "global access" to areas of "strategic interest."

The new Defence Co-operation Agreement (DCA) 
allows the US to use seven named bases in 
Colombia, but US troops are not limited to these 
seven bases. They can use as many military bases 
or facilities as they like in Colombia, with the 
agreement of the host government.

The White House says that the existing cap of 800 
US soldiers and 600 civilian contractors in 
Colombia will remain, but there is no mention of 
a cap in this latest agreement.

While all eyes have been on the Middle East, US 
involvement in Colombia's counter-insurgency war 
has been gradually growing. US troops and special 
forces are involved in reconnaissance, operating 
radar sites, transporting Colombian troops and 
logistical back-up to combat operations.

US troops already use many Colombian bases, 
including Tres Esquinas, in Farc-dominated 
territory in the south and Arauca close to the Venezuelan border.

The wording of the agreement is vague, giving 
great scope for US action. The bases can be used 
"in order to address common threats to peace, 
stability, freedom and democracy."

These parameters are so broad that they could 
include anything from counter-insurgency to 
operations against "anti-US governments."

The deal does have a non-intervention clause, 
stating that "the parties shall comply with their 
obligations under this agreement in a manner 
consistent with the principles of sovereign 
equality, territorial integrity of states, and 
non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states."

Colombia's neighbours, however, are not reassured 
by this and do not think the wording is watertight.

Venezuela, which is frequently defined as an 
"anti-US government" in State Department and 
Pentagon documents, already has two US air bases 
immediately to the north in Aruba and Curacao and 
it views with growing unease the US 
military-build up just over its western border.

But it is not just Venezuela. Almost the 
countries of the Union of South American Nations, 
including Chile, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay, have expressed concern.

Argentina and Brazil have issued a strongly 
worded statement saying that foreign bases are 
"incompatible with the principles of respect for 
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states within the region."

The US military presence is also bolstered by the 
Fourth Fleet of the US navy which was reactivated 
in 2008 despite protests by Latin American governments.

It patrols the waters surrounding Latin America 
and the Caribbean and includes nuclear submarines 
in its fleet. Surveying the hemisphere from the 
air are US air force "airborne warning and control system" radar planes.

The pretext for the US presence in Colombia is 
counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism. Colombia 
has the worst human rights record in the 
hemisphere and, on some counts, the murder of 
trade unionists for example, the worst in the world.

The US has been pouring in military aid - $6 
billion between 1997-2010, more than all the rest 
of Latin America put together.

Yet in that time human rights abuses by the 
Colombian army have increased, according to the 
United Nations high commission for human rights.

Extra-judicial executions by the army are 
"widespread," says the UN, and perpetrated by 
"military units throughout the country."

Collusion with paramilitary forces is still rife 
and recent political scandals show "the extent of 
paramilitary infiltration of the state" - 
extraordinarily powerful language for a body such as the UN to use.

Within Colombia, there is disquiet at the 
expanding US presence. Most of the text of the 
agreement focuses on what taxes the US will be exempt from.

US military forces or civilian personnel won't 
have to pay road tolls, harbour fees, overflight 
or landing fees, entry or departure fees or 
import taxes. They won't need licences to 
construct satellites and the Colombian 
authorities will not be able to inspect US vehicles or aircraft.

All US personnel will be immune from criminal 
prosecution, if this clause is ratified by the 
Colombian authorities. But perhaps the country 
whose sovereignty is most threatened is Colombia itself.

Grace Livingstone is the author of America's 
Backyard: The United States And Latin America 
 From The Monroe Doctrine To The War On Terror 
(Zed Books). She will be one of the speakers at 
an Alba seminar and reception, Building a New 
Latin America, alongside the ambassadors of 
Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela, the charge 
d'affaires of Nicaragua and TUC deputy general 
secretary Frances O'Grady. The event is on 
Thursday from 2pm-6pm at Canning House, 2 
Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PJ. Entrance is £5 
and must be booked in advance at 
<mailto:office at cuba-solidarity.org.uk>office at cuba-solidarity.org.uk 
or call (020) 8800-0155.




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