[News] The US threat to Latin America
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Thu Apr 22 13:03:33 EDT 2010
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.
Freedom Archives
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415 863-9977
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