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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://mronline.org/2019/04/23/intervention-in-venezuela-a-tour-of-u-s-military-bases-in-curacao-and-aruba/">https://mronline.org/2019/04/23/intervention-in-venezuela-a-tour-of-u-s-military-bases-in-curacao-and-aruba/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Intervention in Venezuela: a tour of
U.S. military bases in Curaçao and Aruba</h1>
April 23, 2019<br>
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<p>Aruba and Curaçao are two Caribbean territories under
the dominance (in terms of security and foreign policy)
of the Netherlands. Since 1999, the United States has
agreed to establish “counter-narcotics” operations
centres on both islands.</p>
<p>A publication on the <a
href="http://www.tni.org/es/node/7359" target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer">Tni.org</a> website
indicates that since that year there were suspicions
raised. They cite The Washington Post, which reported
that as of March 1999, the Clinton administration began
sharing with the Colombian Armed Forces real-time
intelligence on guerrilla activities from the outposts
installed on these islands.</p>
<p>The United States, therefore, delegated a clearly
functional use to these bases in their confrontation
with the insurgent and leftist forces. At that time, the
United States was designing its roadmap for the
emergence of the Bolivarian revolution that was already
in power in Venezuela.</p>
<p>U.S. bases on these islands are classified as “Forward
Operating Locations (FOLs)” and initially supported the
advance of U.S. intervention in Colombia’s internal
conflict, without the Netherlands being able to
influence decisions on the matter. For the purposes of
Washington’s actions in the Caribbean, both islands are
used at full discretion for U.S. operations.</p>
<p>This was pointed out in a 1999 article by academic Tom
Blickman. Under the title: “U.S. Advanced Bases in Aruba
and Curaçao. A contribution to the military intervention
in Colombia”, Blickman explained that although it was
initially proposed that the Netherlands would not allow
the use of these bases for purposes of intervention in
the region and that they would only have the goal of
combating drug trafficking, there has been an
indisputable loss of sovereignty of the Netherlands over
its islands by the U.S. government.</p>
<p>Since then, U.S. operations have functioned as a “black
box,” without any form of accountability for their
activities to local or regional political authorities.</p>
<p>In recent years, Venezuela has denounced the incursion
of aircraft that have launched and that would have
carried out electronic operations of various kinds.</p>
<p>In 2015, a DACH-8 military aircraft violated the
airspace of the Venezuelan territorial sea at a time
when the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) detected
an “unusual” additional overflight of other U.S.
“intelligence apparatuses” based in Curacao, according
to the Ministry of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López.</p>
<p>In <a
href="http://mundo.sputniknews.com/america-latina/201803201077163095-padrino-lopez-defensa-avion-pentagono/">March
2018, a U.S. Air Force Boeing C17 aircraft was
detected</a> taking off from the Hato base in Curacao.
On that occasion, Padrino López denounced that the
aircraft carried out prospecting and reconnaissance of
the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and explained that this
time the plane was detected by the Los Monjes
archipelago in the Gulf of Venezuela, in the northwest
of the country.</p>
<p>The evolution of the use of these U.S. military bases
has led to the formation of a “<a
href="http://www.alainet.org/es/articulo/190430">strategic
arc</a>,” which would consist of assault troops,
stationed in control and monitoring settlements in
several Central American and Caribbean countries, with
the aim of carrying out electronic warfare tasks,
espionage and the concentration of logistical devices.</p>
<p>The suspicions about the operational transformation of
these “FOLs” were not long in coming, as the intentions
revealed by the White House in recent months to carry
out a military intervention in Venezuela to depose
President Nicolás Maduro are evident.</p>
<p>In February of this year, the Government of Cuba
assured in <a
href="http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/venezuela-es/article226257695.html">a
communiqué</a> that between the 6th and 10th of that
month, flights of military transport planes from the
United States to bases in Puerto Rico, the Dominican
Republic and other Caribbean islands were detected,
“surely without the knowledge of the governments of
those nations”.</p>
<p>These movements “originated in U.S. military
installations from which units of Special Operations
Forces and the Marine Infantry operate, which are used
for covert operations, including against leaders of
other countries,” the Cuban government warned.</p>
<p>Effectively, the military movement would be camouflaged
as a alleged “humanitarian intervention” in Venezuela
and would involve a tactical deployment to directly
attack Venezuela’s institutional high command and thus
unleash a war scenario of greater proportions.</p>
<p>Havana stressed that it is “evident that the United
States is preparing the ground to establish a
humanitarian corridor by force” and pointed out that
several of its high officials have said “with arrogance
and audacity that, in relation to Venezuela, ‘all
options are on the table, including the military’”.</p>
<p>U.S. efforts in these strongholds have included the
placement and deployment of equipment, which would be
considered disproportionate to the fight against drug
trafficking.</p>
<h2>Frigates and aircraft carriers</h2>
<p>It is presumed that in the occasions in which these
placements occurred, the displacement capacity of the
naval air force with projection to Venezuelan territory
would be calibrated, weighing the particularities of the
Caribbean operationally.</p>
<p>Recently, the think tank Center for International and
Strategic Studies (CSIS), based in Washington, sponsored
a private meeting entitled “Evaluating the use of
military force in Venezuela”. The Grayzone research
project and journalist Max Blumenthal released the list
of attendees.</p>
<p>Among the approximately 40 figures invited to the
off-the-record event to discuss potential military
action against Caracas were some of President Donald
Trump’s policy advisors on Venezuela.</p>
<p>The list included former and current officials from the
State Department, the National Intelligence Council and
the National Security Council, along with Admiral Kurt
Tidd, who until recently was head of the Southern
Command.</p>
<p>In addition to high-level officials from the embassies
of Colombia and Brazil, as well as the main
representatives of the parallel government of the coup
leader in Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, who also participated
in the meeting.</p>
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