Reply #9: "Latin fears about US plans to open bases in Colombia" [View All]

Continental angst . . . a woman wears a mask that reads "Get
out, Uribe" at a protest against the US military presence in
Colombia. Photo: AP

Richard Reynolds in Buenos Aires
August 8, 2009

THE decision by the United States to reactivate a big military presence in Latin America has caused consternation in the continent, stirring memories of its interventionist history in the region.

The head of Colombia's military, General Freddy Padilla, has confirmed the US will open three new US bases in his country and be granted access to four other military facilities, marking the biggest US military build-up on the continent in 40 years.

Army, air force and navy facilities will all potentially have a US military presence by the end of the year. The US has also reconstituted its navy's Fourth Fleet, covering South America, for the first time in 59 years.

On Monday most South American leaders will gather in Ecuador, and the topic of the bases is expected to dominate discussion.

''Obviously history has a role here,'' said Vladimir Torres, a Venezuelan analyst now living in Canada. ''Nobody has forgotten the role the US played in South America in the past.''

Between 1945 and the 1980s the US supported, either directly or behind the scenes, at least 16 coup d'etats in Latin America, which put in place military dictatorships.

The new military push appears at odds with the charm offensive of the US President, Barack Obama, to improve relations with South and Central American countries.

The leaders of Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela have since condemned the US move to re-establish a military presence on the continent. While some have now backed off their initial harsh rhetoric, discomfort over the US move remains.

''I don't see why we need an American military presence on our continent,'' the Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, said last week.

Both the US and Colombia have been at pains to reassure South American leaders that there is no hidden agenda behind the new bases deal. The US sent the National Security Adviser, James Jones, to Brazil's capital last week to discuss Mr Obama's concerns.

The Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, the US's only close ally in the region, completed a rapid-fire, seven-nation tour that was to end in Paraguay yesterday to try to persuade South American leaders there was no hidden agenda behind the deal for US bases.

''This is strictly about drug interdiction,'' (Uribe) said. Colombia is indeed the main supplier of cocaine to the US. (Ha, ha! Uribe made his fortune from cocaine!)

The deal with Colombia comes after Ecuador voted to close the US's only sovereign base in the country by the end of the year.

''We still have concerns, but our discussions were constructive,'' said the Argentine President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, after meeting Mr Uribe on Thursday. Bolivia's President, Evo Morales, reportedly told Mr Uribe that he felt threatened by a US military presence. ''We do not accept US troops in Bolivia, and we do not accept them in Latin America.''

The Colombian bases decision also follows the US decision last year to reconstitute its navy's Fourth Fleet, which covers South America. The fleet had been disbanded in 1950, and the decision appears entirely symbolic, as no ships were assigned to the new fleet.

''It was all about some sort of message being sent to Latin America,'' said William Reynolds, a retired Royal Navy vice-admiral. ''Creating a fleet of ships without any ships can only be about sending a message.''

Juan Batista, an Argentine political scientist who has published three books on the US role in Latin America, said US moves to reconstitute an obsolete fleet under president George Bush or the new bases under Mr Obama made no sense.

Given the strained relations between the US and Venezuela, these messages are probably intended for President Hugo Chavez, a US foe. Yet they are also being read in other South American capitals.

''Even those who are positive toward the current US Administration are sceptical about US moves when it comes to our part of the world,'' Mr Batista said. ''We all remember the School of the Americas.''

The infamous school trained many top Latin American military officers who were later involved in coups.

IN AMERICA'S BACKYARD

1954 CIA-backed coup in Guatemala

1961 Failed invasion of Cuba at Bay of Pigs

1962-present US trade embargo on Cuba

1965 US troops land in Dominican Republic

1973 CIA-backed coup in Chile

1980 US supports right-wing junta in El Salvador

1981-90 US-backed Contra rebellion in Nicaragua

1983 US invasion of Granada

1984 CIA mines three Nicaraguan harbours

1989 US troops invade Panama, arrest General Manuel Noriega

1994 US Navy blockades Haiti

2002 US accused of backing a failed coup against Venezuela's Hugo Chavez

http://www.smh.com.au/world/latin-fears-about-us-plans-to-open-bases-in-colombia-20090807-ed0j.html

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(My additions...)

Late 2007: US/Colombian sabotage of Chavez hostage negotiations for release of FARC hostages (which Alvaro Uribe asked him to conduct).

Dec. 1, 2007: Donald Rumsfeld op-ed in the Washington Post, "The Smart Way to Defeat Tyrants Like Chavez" (by "swift U.S. action" in support of (Bushwhack) "friends and allies" in South America).

March 2008: FARC about to release Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages from a temporary FARC camp inside Ecuador's border; the US/Colombia drop ten 500 lb US "smart bombs" on the camp--without notifying the president of Ecuador--slaughtering 25 people in their sleep, and almost starting a war between the US/Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela.

September 2008: The US funds and organizes white separatist rioters and murderers who try to secede from Bolivia's national government and take Bolivia's main gas and oil reserves with them. President Morales throws the US ambassador out of Bolivia. Chile calls a meeting of the newly formalized South American "common market"--UNASUR--which gives strong backing to Morales, and Chile, Brazil and Argentina and others--with the US out of the picture--help Morales bring calm to Bolivia.

June 2008: The rich oligarchy of the US client state of Honduras drags the elected president, Manuel Zelaya--who had been advocating for the poor majority--out of his bed at gunpoint, flies him out of the country on a plane with blackened windows, declares martial law, shuts down all opposition or neutral TV/radio stations, even roughs up and arrests some AP reporters, and starts using live ammunition on peaceful protesters, killing several people. Zelaya had also proposed converting the US military base in Honduras to a commercial airport. That's pretty much the whole story. The oligarchs and their corpo/fascist pals want slave labor; and the Pentagon wants to keep their "lily pad" country for US aggression in the region.