Possibility of US military presence raises fears in Paraguay
Visit by Rumsfeld stirs speculation on military base
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times | December 25, 2005

ASUNCION, Paraguay -- Are the Americans coming?

That question continues to reverberate in this sleepy capital four months after a ''courtesy call" visit by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld unleashed a torrent of speculation about Washington's reputed ''secret agenda."

US officials have categorically denied having plans for a military base here, describing the episode as a misunderstanding over ongoing US-Paraguayan military exercises.

Despite the denials, talk of detachments of Marines taking up residence in this nation in the heart of South America has entered the continent's political discourse.

''No Yanqui Troops in Paraguay!" read banners hoisted by protesters at last month's Summit of the Americas in Argentina.
(snip/...)

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/12/25/possibility_of_us_military_presence_raises_fears_in_paraguay/

With Hugo Chavez sitting on a load of oil, and the new guy in Bolivia, you can bet that if history has meaning Bushites have its eyes on what's going on there.

and it sits beneath 600,000 hectares of arid land purchased, since 1999, by Bush family patron Sun Myung Moon. The Chaco is also a strategic point for the region's drugs and arms trade.

From Where in South America is Sun Myung Moon?, an excerpt from an Irish Times story entitled "Paraguayans accuse Moon of carving out an empire of smack":

"Since 1999, Rev Moon has built his personal empire which begins on the marshy banks of the River Paraguay and stretches beyond the hazy, level horizon through 600,000 hectares of arid land - equivalent to more than two Luxembourgs - punctuated by solitary clusters of withered trees and sad bushes which struggle desperately for air.

The scorching sun beats relentlessly on one of Latin America's most desolate zones. It is here in the northern province of Chaco, directly above the GuaranI aquifer, the largest resource of fresh drinking water in the world, where Moon's associates claim he wishes to build an ecological paradise.

Nevertheless, national Senator Domingo Laino sees a different pattern in Moon's acquisitions. "There are two principal branches to Moon's interest in Paraguay," he said, "control of the largest fresh drinking water source in the world and control of the narcotics business", which is so prevalent in this area. "President Lula told me that Brazil took serious measures to curb Moon a few years back as it became evident that he was buying up the border between our two countries," said the senator.

Allegations from local law enforcement officials support this claim. The so-called Dr Montiel, Paraguay's drugs tsar from 1976-89, said: "The fact that they came and bought in Chaco and on both sides of the Brazilian border is very telling. It is an enormously strategic point in both the narcotics and arms trades and indeed the available intelligence clearly shows that the Moon sect is involved in both these enterprises." "

squelch democracies in Latin America as they did in Haiti.

spill Latin American blood in our hemisphere, just like previous Republican Presidents. They really like to reinforce the authority of the European descended, Republican-friendly elite, and it doesn't bother their consciences whatsoever when entire villages are destroyed, and whatever survivors remain made homeless.

They called them "leftists," communists, etc. before. Now they'll just call them "terrorists," or all of the above. I think it's a race to see if the people of this hemisphere can secure the unity they need before he strikes.

It is well worth one's time to read this entire article...Dark times are approaching South America, and I suspect Cheney's secret energy meetings covered this hot topic extensively while Rummy took copious notes.

Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy

by Conn Hallinan


November 24, 2005

Foreign Policy In Focus - 2005-11-21


It would be easy to make fun of President Bush's recent fiasco at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Artic Circle to Tierra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neoliberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists asked him rude questions about Karl Rove. And the President ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: “Wow! Brazil is big!”

But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.

U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .

Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.

<snip>

The base is crawling with U.S. civilians—many of them retired military—working for Military Professional Resources Inc., Virginia Electronics, DynCorp, Lockheed Martin (the world's largest arms maker), Northrop Grumman, TRW, and dozens of others.

It was U.S. intelligence agents working out of Manta who fingered Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia leader Ricardo Palmera last year, and several leaders of the U.S.-supported coup against Haitian President Bertram Aristide spent several months there before launching the 2004 coup that exiled Aristide to South Africa.

“Privatizing” war is not only the logical extension of the Bush administration's mania for contracting everything out to the private sector; it also shields the White House's activities from the U.S. Congress. “My complaint about the use of private contractors,” says U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsy (D-IL), “is their ability to fly under the radar to avoid accountability.”

<more>

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAL20051124&articleId=1322

big time. I mean we are talking the whole fucking world here...

...Argentina and Uruguay ...not a straightaway border but look at a map....is a hotbed of smuggling, espionage of all types, general lawlessness and....terrorist cells.
....not that this justifies u.s. troops anywhere, but the article made it seem like no man's land. I will try to find it.
....the way it was described....you wouldn't want to be there...

What is the U.S. Military Doing in Paraguay?

By Benjamin Dangl

8/01/05


<snip>

“Terrorism Networks in Triple Border Region”


The U.S. interest in Paraguay makes sense for other reasons as well; the triple border between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil has been long been rumored to be an “Islamic terrorist training ground.” According to New Yorker reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, the area is “one of the most lawless places in the world…also the center of Middle Eastern terrorism in South America.” Goldberg reported that Hamas and Al Qaeda are associated with the terrorists in this region. (10)

As the U.S. government was gearing up for a war in Iraq, Goldberg also wrote an article that purportedly linked Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The article was gratefully used by the Bush administration to further their argument for war. Critics believe Goldberg often forms a hypothesis and then goes out to try and prove it. Veteran muckraker, Alexander Cockburn found various inaccuracies in the article linking Al Qaeda to Hussein and wrote that “Goldberg once served in Israel's armed forces, which may or may not be a guide to his political agenda.” (11)

As we’ve seen in Iraq, the Bush administration understands that the “war on terror” can serve as a great excuse to claim natural resources. The U.S. military activity in Paraguay combined with the triple border terrorist theory and the gas reserves in a precarious Bolivia, sound like a recipe for another U.S. “democracy spreading” bonanza

<end>

http://upsidedownworld.org/US-in-Paraguay.htm

Dec. 9 2005

Press Release - Council On Hemispheric Affairs
Perhaps with Manta in its Mind, the U.S. Eyes Paraguay
This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associates Julian Armington and You Lee Kim

• Initial reports that 400-500 U.S. troops would be operating in Paraguay at once were misleading.

• Washington's intensified interest in previously all-but-ignored Paraguay invites questions regarding U.S. intentions for the country and the region.

• Paraguay, which has long been thought of as a terrorist haven, may be the next front in Washington's "War on Terror."

• Could Mariscal Estigarribia be the new Manta?

On June 1, the Paraguayan Congress signed off on an agreement bringing over 400 U.S. troops to that country for “joint training and humanitarian operations.” The deal, which is initially slated to last 18 months, sparked criticism and speculation among both watchdog groups and officials of neighboring South American governments, regarding possible motives behind the presence of U.S. troops in such large numbers in a country long renowned for its crime, corruption and contrabanding. The first of what will be 13 such detachments numbering less than 50 U.S. military personnel arrived on July 1, with a new contingent of 45 soldiers following on July 24. COHA was soon able to establish that the initial reports that 400 troops would be arriving in Paraguay referred to the aggregate number of U.S. troops being sent to the country over the 18 months. This confusion in the size of troop levels to be deployed had been distorted by the lack of clear information coming from the Pentagon regarding U.S. military actions in Paraguay through 2006.
(snip)

The White House’s gradually increasing focus on militarizing the region shows that the U.S. remains better prepared to use force and the threat of intervention, instead of constructive diplomacy to resolve outstanding bilateral issues. During the Cold War, the U.S.’ justification for its interventions in Latin America was the fear of communism; in the 1990s, it was the War on Drugs; and now the “Global War on Terrorism” is the central argument to ensure that American boots remain on the ground in the region. Whatever argument Washington chooses to present, it is clear that it wants to make certain that it is in control of its “backyard” by any and all means.
(snip/...)

http://www.harolddoan.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7291

Natural-gas rich region of Bolivia is right across the border from Paraguay, and Bolivians just elected a Socialist as President, Evo Morales.

Rumsfeld threatened Bolivians if they elected Morales when he was in Paraguay, and Condi Rice has said the same thing.

in Santa Cruz, already they are demanding "autonomy". Bolivia aits on enormous natural gas reserves.

there aren't enough people in the world who hate us! :eyes:

U.S. Military Eyes Paraguay

Rumors of an American base raise fears that the United States is there to stay
By Adam Saytanides

Then the rumors began appearing in the Latin American press: The United States was moving to establish a military base at Mariscal Estigarribia, a town in Paraguay just 124 miles from Bolivia's southeast frontier and within easy striking distance of Bolivian natural gas reserves, the largest in the Americas. Anywhere from 400 to 500 U.S. troops were said to be arriving.

In late July, Brazil reportedly launched military maneuvers along the Paraguayan border, a move seen as an expression of Brazilian discontent with Paraguay. More vocally, Brazil's foreign minister Celso Amorin drew a line in the sand: "Paraguay must understand that the choice is between Mercosur and other possible partners."

Brazil and Argentina lord over Paraguay in the Mercosur trading bloc with a dominant import-export relationship. They don't want to see their leverage compromised if Paraguay gains preferred access to the U.S. market for its textiles (hinted at recently) and drops out of the Mercosur trade partnership.

But Bolivia has the most to fear from a U.S. military base in Paraguay. With national elections slated for December 5, the Andean nation is expected to become the next Latin American flashpoint. Since October 2003, widespread indigenous peasant uprisings have ousted two presidents. Quechua and Aymara Indians make up the majority of the Bolivian populace, and they're pressuring the central government to halt the forced eradication of coca cultivation and to nationalize the country's natural gas reserves. Evo Morales, presidential candidate for the Movement Towards Socialism, or MAS party, made a meteoric rise onto the international political stage by supporting these goals, in open defiance of Washington. Considered by many analysts to be the frontrunner, Morales' main competition is former president Jorge Quiroga Ramírez, the preferred candidate of the United States.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2381/

Corporate America no like Evo

peace

You might want this:

Hastert/Bush Whacked Out

added, thanks for sharing :hi:

peace