Attorney Omar Cabezas Believes
U.S. Bases in Colombia seek to overthrow Hugo Chávez
07 de Septiembre de 2009 | Pedro Ortega Ramírez 07 of September 2009 | Pedro Ortega Ramirez
Seize the main oil plants in Venezuela and overthrow President Hugo Chávez, are the true intentions that hides the U.S. government to build seven military bases in Colombia, said Attorney for the Defense of Human Rights, Omar Cabezas.
"The bases they are establishing in Colombia are ten minutes away from the largest oil deposits in Venezuela, then let us not be idiots and whoever wants to become is another matter," said Omar to be for his views on the subject of these military bases on Colombian soil.
The attorney also said that the intentions of the U.S. State Department and the American far right, is by any means to overthrow Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez.
"One of the best ways to defeat Chavez is destroying the oil fields, and that is the goal of military bases, as well as eliminate the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas," he said.
"These databases point to the overthrow of Hugo Chávez, have been unable to get away with coups, nor with demonstrations they do in Venezuela, therefore they seek a military solution"
. For Omar, the plan is being directed by the State Department and executed by the Southern Command United States Army.
ollowing the announcement of installation of these military bases in Colombia, Latin American countries have raised their voices in protest, because they consider an act of intimidation of the United States against countries that do not share their political interference.
The companion president Daniel Ortega has repeatedly expressed opposition to the installation of foreign military bases in Latin America, it believes does not pay to peace in the region.
by Rick Rozoff
US Escalates War Plans In Latin America
US Military: After Iraq, Latin America
Global Research, July 23, 2009
Stop NATO
On June 29 US President Barack Obama hosted his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe at the White House and weeks later it was announced that the Pentagon plans to deploy troops to five air and naval bases in Colombia, the largest recipient of American military assistance in Latin America and the third largest in the world, having received over $5 billion from the Pentagon since the launching of Plan Colombia nine years ago.
Six months before the Obama-Uribe meeting outgoing US President George W. Bush bestowed the US's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, on Uribe as well as on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
A press account of the time expressed both shock and indignation at the White House's honoring of Uribe in writing that "Despite extra-judicial killings, paramilitaries and murdered unionists, Colombia's President Uribe has won the US's highest honor for human rights." [1]
The same source substantiated its concern by adding:
"Colombia is the most dangerous country on earth for trade unionists. In 2006, half of all union member killings around the world took place there. Since Uribe came into power in 2002, nearly 500 have been murdered. In reply to concern about the assassinations, Uribe dismissed the victims as 'a bunch of criminals dressed up as unionists.'
"More than 1,000 cases of illegal killings by the military are being investigated. There are dozens of cases of soldiers taking innocent men, murdering them and dressing them up as enemy combatants. Hundreds of
members of the security forces are thought to have taken part in such activities." [2]
Colombia: Forty Year War
For over forty years Colombia, the last of Washington's remaining "death squad democracy" clients in the Western Hemisphere, has waged a relentless counterinsurgency war against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC} and an equally ruthless campaign with its US-trained and -equipped military and allied paramilitary formations against trade union, peasant, indigenous and other organizations. An estimated 40,000 have been killed and 2 million displaced as a result of the fighting.
In 1985 the FARC laid down its arms and entered into a peace process with the government of Belisario Betancur.
It helped found the Patriotic Union to participate in electoral and other peaceful activities but within several years as many as 5,000 Patriotic Union elected officials, candidates, trade unionists, community organizers and other activists were murdered by Colombian security forces and government-linked right-wing death squads, especially the notorious United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and its late leader Carlos Castano. Eight congressmen, 70 councilmen, dozens of deputies and mayors and hundreds of trade unionists and peasant leaders were slain and in 1989-1990 two of its presidential candidates were murdered within seven months.
Faced with complete extermination, the FARC rearmed and sought refuge in the southeast of the country.
In 1998 then Colombian President President Andres Pastrana permitted FARC a 16,000 square mile safe haven in the Caqueta Department.
The US then set its sights on an intensive counterinsurgency campaign to destroy the FARC infrastructure in the region and to uproot and destroy the organization altogether.
In January of 2000 STRATFOR, not a source known for opposing war, warned:
"The U.S. State Department recently announced a two-year, $1.3 billion emergency U.S. aid package for counter-narcotics operations in Colombia. The plan also is geared toward helping President Andres Pastrana negotiate peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But the plan will have the opposite effect. It will end the peace negotiations between the rebels and the government and re-ignite the war. Ultimately, the plan does little more than pave the way for greater U.S. involvement. [3]
It went on to say that "The bulk of the money pledged for counter-narcotics efforts will go directly to the military to fight the rebels....This will tip the balance of power away from the government in Bogota and toward the military, which has always opposed the peace negotiations. Ultimately, the door will open wider for greater U.S. involvement." [4]
Plan Colombia: Clinton's Parthian Shot
Colombia was already the largest recipient of US military aid in the Western Hemisphere by 2000, but the Clinton administration increased the Pentagon's role in the nation with what became Plan Colombia.
After entering office in January of 1993 bombing Iraq and later killing hundreds if not thousands of Somalis the same year, Clinton and his foreign policy team never abandoned the use of military aggression.
In 1995 it provided military planners and advisers for Croatia's brutal and ethnocidal Operation Storm and led NATO's bombing of Bosnian Serb targets, including retreating troops and refugee columns following them, leaving what is now the Bosnian Serb Republic strewn with depleted uranium and an epidemic of cancer cases.
Three years later it launched cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan and on December 16, 1998 began Operation Desert Fox, a deadly four-day assault on Iraq with 250 airstrikes and over 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles - the evening before scheduled impeachment proceedings against Clinton in the US Congress.
The following year the administration's use of military aggression reached its apex with the 78-day US-led NATO assault against Yugoslavia, the first military attack against a European nation since Hitler's and Mussolini's from 1939 onward.
The administration's Parthian shot was Plan Colombia in 2000.
Colombia's President Pastrana conceived of a project the preceding year, 1999, that the White House redesigned for its own purposes.
As former US ambassador to El Salvador Robert White, sacked by the Reagan administration in 1981 in preparation for unleashing its death squad and Contra wars in Central America, wrote after the US Congress passed Plan Colombia in June of 2000:
"If you read the original Plan Colombia, not the one that was written in Washington but the original Plan Colombia, there's no mention of military drives against the FARC rebels. Quite the contrary. (President Pastrana) says the FARC is part of the history of Colombia and a historical phenomenon, he says, and they must be treated as Colombians." [5]
An alternative American presswire reported that, "In early 1999, the Pastrana administration began peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group.
"The president also made his first trip to Washington in search of aid against the drug trade. But when he got there, 'they changed the script on him,' according to Marco Romero of the Peace Colombia Initiative, a coalition created in September by 60 local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) seeking an alternative to the Plan Colombia.
"Pastrana's talks with U.S. congressional leaders and the head of the White House office on National Drug Control Policy, Barry McCaffrey, gave rise to the Plan Colombia, said Romero." [6]
McCaffrey is a retired Army General who earned his stripes in the Dominican Republic in 1965, Vietnam from 1966-69 and in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. He was also head of the Pentagon's Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) from 1994-96 and Deputy US Representative to NATO.
"In support of their request for aid to Colombia, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and drug czar McCaffrey told the U.S. Congress that the funds were to be used for 'restoring order in southeastern Colombia.'" [7]
With the passing of Plan Colombia the US increased military aid to the nation by over twenty times in just two years, 1998-2000, from $50 million in 1998 to over $1 billion in 2000, placing Colombia only behind Israel and Egypt in that category. In the ten years since 1998 US military aid was increased a hundredfold.
Earlier in the year a mainstream American news source said that "The Clinton administration's proposed $1.6 billion in emergency aid to Colombia is at least as much a counterinsurgency package as it is an anti-drug measure" and mentioned that "a member of Congress objected to White House efforts to sidestep the normal appropriations process." [8]
Weeks before the House vote one of the worse recent massacres of Colombian civilians occurred in El Salado, perpetrated by paramilitaries with army complicity.
Plan Colombia was drenched in blood even before it was formalized. In January of 2000 US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Colombia to promote the initiative and in honor of her arrival the Colombian military killed 50 of its citizens in an attack outside of the capital of Bogota.
The US Congress and Senate added over a billion dollars, sixty attacks helicopters and more special forces counterinsurgency advisers to the war in June. Approximately 70% of the 2000 Plan Colombia funds were allotted for the financing, training and supplying of army anti-narcotics battalions operating in southeastern Colombia, the former FARC safe haven.
Nominal progressives, the late Paul Wellstone in the Senate and Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky in the House, attached a human rights proviso that no serious person expected to be honored and only two months after the Congress's authorization of Plan Colombia Clinton used his presidential waiver to override the human rights conditions on the grounds of "national security."
Nine Years Later: Drug War Charade Gives Way To Naked Counterinsurgency
The escalation of counterinsurgency operations was packaged under the label of a war against drugs, of course. Nine years later Colombia remains the largest supplier of cocaine and heroin to the United States.
How seriously one should have taken this charade was indicated in April of 2000 when the former commander of the U.S. Army's anti-drug operation in Colombia, Col. James C. Hiett, pleaded guilty to not having turned over evidence on his wife, Laurie, for smuggling cocaine and heroin into the United States. His spouse pleaded guilty in January of planning to smuggle $700,000 worth of heroin into the US through the mail.
Colonel Hiett doubtlessly performed his duties in propagating the tale that the FARC was responsible for the lion's share of coca and opium cultivation and trafficking in the nation and that the US military was the best response to its alleged activities.
If one still had any doubts regarding the sincerity of American claims to be combating narco-trafficking and terrorism, within weeks of the passage of Plan Colombia Secretary of State Albright escorted the head of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, Hashim Thaci, whose colleagues and allied drug cartels control most of the marijuana, hashish and narcotics traffic in Europe, to her old haunts in the United Nations Headquarters and her then current ones in the State Department, preparing him to become a future head of state. (Since last year he is in fact the president of what former Serbian president Vojislav Kostunica has aptly called the world's first NATO state. It is also the world's newest narco-state.)
After the events of September 11, 2001 in the United States the White House elevated the FARC towards the top of its targets list in the so-called Global War on Terror, though what role the group could have had in the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. is beyond any sane person's ability to discern or fathom.
By 2002 the Bush administration had discarded most of the drug war rationale and "Congress approved a law to allow American military aid to Colombia to be used in a 'unified campaign' against drugs and terrorism" and by 2008 "six years and $5-billion later, the Colombian military is Latin America's most skilled fighting force." [9]
American "Special Operations training provided many of the skills that showed 'the way to open the door to these remote jungle locations that were in the past inaccessible to the Colombian government.'
"Military units including Special Forces and an elite Commando Brigade were created. Eight regional intelligence units were set up with reconnaissance airplanes, and state-of-the-art air-to-ground communications. An Intelligence School was created, as well as a Counter Intelligence Center." [10]
Days before leaving office George W. Bush awarded Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who rumors have linked to the former Medellin drug cartel and whose brother Santiago is accused of narco-trafficking and death squad connections, the Medal of Freedom.
Perhaps anticipating the honor and paying back the person most responsible for Plan Colombia and the increased military operations both within Colombia's borders and outside the country, Alvaro Uribe announced that he was conferring the "Colombia is Passion" award on Bill Clinton "at a gala event...in New York City" for "for believing in our country and encouraging others to do the same."
"Prominent Democrats on the guest list include former Clinton strategists Dick Morris and Vernon Jordan, former Clinton Cabinet members Lawrence Summers and Madeleine Albright, and several Democratic congressmen," most of whom presumably had the political survival skills not to attend. [11]
Earlier the same year "On the eve of a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush" and with no further pretense of a drug war "U.S. and Colombian soldiers arrived in the southern town of Cartagena del Chaira, a FARC stronghold, by helicopter...." [12]
As the narcotics issue has been downplayed, so the human rights component of Plan Colombia has been relegated to the realm of short-lived public relations manipulation.
In February of 2007 Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo's brother, Senator Alvaro Araujo, was arrested for connections to the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Uribe was untroubled by the above and said, "When they ask, why do I keep the foreign minister, I answer: She is not involved in the criminal activities that are under investigation." [13]
Plan Colombia has entered its tenth calendar year. In the intervening years covert and overt government and paramilitary massacres, many too grisly to relate, have continued unabated and drug cultivation and exports have been, if marginally dented, not substantially affected by what is still referred to when convenient as a drug eradication program.
Drug war claims notwithstanding, Plan Colombia's activities both within and outside the nation were actuated by other designs.
Colombia: Pentagon's Base In Andean Region
From its very advent it was intended to be more than an intensification of the decades-old counterinsurgency war in Colombia and to be the opening salvo of a US campaign to escalate the militarization of the Andes region. White House and Pentagon plans to employ Colombia as a regional military force and operating base to police South America have gained new urgency for Washington with political transformations in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Paraguay heralding the end of US political, economic and military domination of the continent.
In its first full year of existence, 2001, a Peruvian Air Force jet shot down a civilian plane spotted by a US aircraft flown by CIA contractors with American missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter on board, killing both as well as the pilot.
By 2006 the US had doubled the amount of military trainers and advisers stationed in Colombia and in the same year the nation's planes started violating the air space of neighboring Ecuador. The planes, and it would not have been unusual for US personnel to have been aboard them, were ostensibly conducting fumigation missions.
The Ecuadoran government denounced the actions as "unfriendly and hostile" and "Defense Minister Marcelo Delgado said...that army airplanes will fly over its border to prevent Colombian airplanes from entering Ecuadorian airspace...." [14]
In December of 2006 not only Colombian planes crossed the border into the country. Later in the month "Some 40 Colombians...fled across the border into Ecuador after they were attacked by Colombian soldiers," the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ecuador reported. [15]
Twelve months before fifteen Colombians were killed and 1,500 displaced in the Narilo province in the country's southeast, bordering Ecuador. "Authorities remained silent as to whether this was a military operation against guerrilla fighters or a dispute between paramilitary groups." [16]
In early 2007 Marine Gen. Peter Pace, then chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, traveled to Colombia and spent two days meeting with the country's military and political leadership. Shortly afterwards Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, about whom more will be said later, returned the favor and visited the Pentagon where he met with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. A Defense Department report of the visit quoted Pentagon officials as saying that "U.S. military support for Colombia, previously focused on combating drugs, has expanded to helping the Colombian military confront the country’s rebel insurgency" and that "U.S. Special Forces troops in Colombia provide Colombian forces military training...."[17]
Five months later Colombia built a third military base on its 2,219 kilometer border with Venezuela, initially stationing 1,000 troops in it.
Colombia has become a military outpost for Washington in confronting and threatening both Ecuador on its southwestern and Venezuela on its northeastern frontiers.
It is also part of a strategy that is more than regional and even continental in nature and scope.
South America: NATO's Sixth Continent
Since the implementation of Plan Colombia in 2000 the US has enlisted several NATO allies for the counterinsurgency war in the nation and for broader purposes in the region. British SAS (Special Air Service) personnel have been assigned to the Colombian military for training purposes and Spain also sent military personnel.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has members in Europe and North America and partnerships in Asia (Afghanistan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) and with Australia.
The only inhabited continent it hasn't penetrated yet is South America,
In January of 2007 Colombian defense chief Santos traveled to Washington, London and Brussels, in the last-named city "for talks with the European Union," and then to Munich, Germany "for a meeting of NATO defense ministers." [18] Santos of course made the tour to garner more military aid from the US and its NATO allies. The European Union was reported to have provided $154 million annually as of that year.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned in September of 2005 that "We discovered through intelligence work a military exercise that NATO has of an invasion against Venezuela, and we are preparing ourselves for that
invasion."
He detailed the plan as consisting of a "military exercise...known as Plan Balboa [that] includes rehearsing simultaneous assaults by air, sea and land at a military base in Spain, involving troops from the US and NATO countries." [19] US troops deployed to the Dutch possession of Curacao off Venezuela's northwest coast were also part of the planned operation.
In spring of the following year it was reported that "Military maneuvers in the Caribbean are being carried out by the US, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and countries from the hemisphere - excluding Cuba and Venezuela, which are the potential objectives of this demonstration of force" and that immediately afterwards "Future exercises will involve roughly 4,000 soldiers from the US, Holland, Belgium, Canada and France, who are scheduled to participate in a maneuver being dubbed the Joint Caribbean Lion, to take place between May 23 and June 15 in Curacao and Guadeloupe." [20]
Colombian Counterinsurgency War: Model For South Asia And Central America
For the past several years the US has also recruited and deployed Colombian military and security forces for the war in Afghanistan, supposedly to replicate the Plan Colombia drug war component in South Asia.
In April of 2007 Washington transferred its ambassador to Colombia, William Wood, to Afghanistan to oversee the application of the Colombian model of counterinsurgency under the guise of combating drug cultivation. Two years later Afghanistan is estimated to account for over 90% of the illegal opium production in the world.
A Bangladeshi analyst observed that "Based on 2003 figures, drug trafficking constitutes the third biggest global commodity in cash terms after oil and the arms trade.
"Afghanistan and Colombia are the largest drug producing economies in the world, which feed a flourishing criminal economy. These countries are
heavily militarized and the drug trade is protected.
"Amply documented, the CIA has played a central role in the development of both the Latin American and Asian drug triangles.
"NATO, as an entity, has become an accessory to major narcotics proliferation and criminal activity. Opium is not truly being reduced: in fact all the figures show that it is on the rise. This is happening under the eyes of NATO as confirmed by several media reports." [21]
The intermediate way stations between Afghanistan and Colombia are Kosovo, not without reason dubbed the Colombia of the Balkans, and increasingly Iraq.
The pattern is impossible to ignore.
Ironically given the above contention, BBC News reported two years ago that "The US hopes that some of the lessons learned in Colombia can be applied to Afghanistan...." [22]
Last January the current chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullin, visited Colombia and was quoted as saying "Our military-to-military relationship is exceptionally strong. We need to stay with them. They have achieved things that are remarkable." [23]
This March Mullin traveled to Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Mexico. Upon returning his comments were summarized as affirming that "The U.S. military is ready to help Mexico in its deadly war against drug cartels with some of the same counter-insurgency tactics used against militant networks in Iraq and Afghanistan" [24] and that "the Plan Colombia aid package could be an 'overarching' model for Pakistan and Afghanistan...." [25]
A feature on US Central Command chief David Petraeus' plans for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan reported that "Military officials are also looking at U.S. relations with Colombia as a possible model for Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying something like Washington's Plan Colombia strategy could help the two countries against militants." [26]
The report from which the last quote is excerpted, "US sees lessons for Afghan war in Colombia," also includes this:
"Afghan police have already trained with their Colombian counterparts and Bogota is studying sending troops to Afghanistan to help out in eradication and de-mining." [27]
What is being exported to Afghanistan was made sickeningly evident last autumn when it was announced that Colombia had dismissed three generals and 22 soldiers of different ranks for the slaughter, at random apparently, of young slum dwellers in Bogota.
"The youths were lured from a Bogota slum with the promise of work; later their bodies were found in mass graves near the Venezuelan border.
"Human rights groups say that soldiers sometimes kill homeless people so that they can inflate their claims of success on the battlefield and receive promotion. [28]
Among the three generals asked to resign was General Mario Montoya Uribe, "the author of the policy to use body counts to measure success against guerrillas" [29] who "allegedly encouraged promoting officers whose units kill the most leftist rebels." [30]
A later report provided gruesome details:
"More than 1,000 cases of illegal killings by the military are being investigated. There are dozens of cases of soldiers taking innocent men, murdering them and dressing them up as enemy combatants. Hundreds of
members of the security forces are thought to have taken part in such activities." [31]
Recall in reference to the above that the report immediately preceding it states that the murdered were buried in mass graves near the Venezuelan border.
With this year's onslaught by the Sri Lankan military against LTTE strongholds appearing to have ended the nation's 33-year war, the Colombian government and its American military suppliers are waging the only decades-long counterinsurgency war in the world, one now in its fifth decade.
It has been and remains a war against the poor, the landless, the disenfranchised, anyone would opposes the privileges and abuses of the large landholders, the business elite, the US-trained military establishment and the upper echelons of the narco-mafias.
Nine years ago Plan Colombia was designed to be the terminal phase of that war.
The Colombia model is now the prototype Washington has openly identified for application in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Mexico among other locations.
Plan Colombia: Reining In Resurgent South America
Plan Colombia, additionally, is now being increasingly revealed as a military strategy for suppressing a rising tide of discontent with the aftereffects of post-Cold War neoliberalism throughout South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
The US and the West as a whole have used the Colombian regime and its formidable military machine to intimidate its neighbors Ecuador and Venezuela and the Andean region as a whole. Bordering on Panama, Colombia is also a potential launching pad for attacks on Central American nations like Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
A brief chronology of the past year and a half will demonstrate the heightened role that is intended for Colombia by its sponsors in Washington.
In January of 2008 Venezuelan President Chavez said that the US and its Colombian client "don't want peace in Colombia because it's the perfect excuse to have thousands of soldiers there, the CIA, military bases, spy planes and who knows what other...operations against Venezuela."
He added, "I accuse the government of Colombia of devising a conspiracy, acting as a pawn of the U.S. empire, of devising a military provocation against Venezuela." [32]
On March 1st of 2008 Colombia launched a raid inside Ecuador and killed 24 suspected FARC members, including the group's second in command Raul Reyes.
An article titled "Colombian official says US intelligence helped raid on
rebels" reported that "the Ecuadoran air force found that Colombia used ten 500-pound bombs, similar to those used by US forces in Iraq, which 'cannot be transported by Colombian airplanes.'
"Ecuadoran authorities also noted that a few hours before the Colombian bombing raid, an HC-130 military aircraft had taken off from the US air base at Manta, in southeastern Ecuador." [33]
Fearing that the armed incursion inside Ecuador was part of a broader plan of aggression, Venezuela deployed some 9,000 troops to its border with Colombia. On the day of the attack Venezuelan President Chavez warned his Colombian counterpart, "Don't think about doing that over here because it would very serious, it would be cause for war." [34]
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia after the attack and when it was later discovered that the bombing had killed an Ecuadoran national, warned of further consequences.
On March 6 Venezuela decreed a state of general alert and sent ten battalions, tanks and planes to the Colombian border.
US President Bush told reporters that "America would continue to stand with Colombia." [35]
Three weeks later Ecuador announced that it would "install electronic surveillance equipment and boost its military presence along its border with Colombia" and President Correa warned that his country would ""never again" allow a foreign attack on its soil. [36]
US Military: After Iraq, Latin America
Also in April of 2008 the US Air Forces Southern director of operations, Col. Jim Russell, advocated that troops being withdrawn from Iraq be redeployed to the Pentagon's Southern Command which takes in South and Central America and the Caribbean. He stated at the time: "We think, as we move ahead, we will see more of a shift of attention towards the region.
“We’re seeing problems right at the mouth of Central America. That’s the gateway to our southern border.” [37]
On July 12, 2008 the US Navy reestablished its 4th Fleet, encompassing South and Central America and the Caribbean as does the Pentagon's Southern Command, after it was disestablished in 1950 following World War II.
Earlier this year the chief of the Southern Command, Admiral James Stavridis, became NATO Supreme Allied Commander and head of the Pentagon's European Command. Three of the last five NATO top military commanders - Stavridis, his predecessor Bantz John Craddock and Wesley Clark - moved to that post from being head of Southern Command.
In May of 2008, clearly anticipating what has occurred this week, Venezuela warned Colombia not to allow a new US military base in La Guajira near the border with northwestern Venezuela. The latter's president said, "We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire. Colombia is launching a threat of war at us." [38]
Less than a week later a US warplane penetrated Venezuelan airspace on a flight from the Netherlands Antilles. The Venezuelan government accused the US of spying on a military base on Orchila Island and "said the U.S. was testing Venezuela's ability to detect intruders and that the Venezuelan air force was prepared to intercept the plane had it not turned back toward the Caribbean island of Curacao." [39]
Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel said that "This is just the latest step in a series of provocations in which they want to involve our country." [40]
In September a bloody separatist ambush killed eight people in the Bolivian province of Pando. The government expelled US ambassador Philip Goldberg, an old hand at supporting violent secessionist uprisings in Bosnia and Kosovo earlier. The head of the nation's armed forces, General Luis Trigo, warned that "The Bolivian Armed Forces warned on Friday that they will not tolerate any more actions of radical groups or foreign interference in the country's internal affairs." [41]
Toward the end of 2008 Bolivia expelled US Drug Enforcement Administration officers and later announced plans to purchase Russian helicopters for anti-narcotics operations.
Today Bolivian President Evo Morales stated, "I have first-hand information that the empire, through the U.S. Southern Command, made the coup d'etat in Honduras." [42]
In October of 2008 Ecuador charged the CIA with infiltrating its military and knowing of the Colombian attack on its territory the preceding March. Defence Minister Javier Ponce told newspapers: "The CIA had full knowledge of what was happening in Angostura." [43]
At the same time Colombian Defense Minister Santos broadened his nation's bellicosity by aiming it toward Russia. Completely the creature of Washington and its military that he is, Santos said:
"Russia, with its 16,000 nuclear bombs, has a great desire to be a key player in the world. But its presence in the region will promote a return to the Cold War." [44]
Santos was alluding in particular to recent Russian-Venezuelan naval exercises in the Caribbean and to the fact that Russia has provided Caracas with advanced arms, warplanes and submarines, reflecting a general trend among Latin American nations - including Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Nicaragua - toward increased military ties with Russia as a counterbalance to traditional American domination of their armed forces and to be able to defend themselves against US and proxy attacks. What Santos and his American sponsors fear is the effective demise of the almost 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine.
This March Venezuelan President Chavez labeled Colombian Defense Minister Santos "a threat to regional stability" and a "a threat to the stability and sovereignty of the countries in the region" who "again shows his contempt for international law" in reference to Santos' defense of the attack inside Ecuador last year. [45]
Santos reiterated his intention to continue striking alleged rebel sites in neighboring countries, evoking this response from Chavez a few days later: "In case of a provocation on the part of Colombia's armed forces or infringements on Venezuela's sovereignty, I will give an order to strike with Sukhoi aircraft and tanks. I will not let anyone disrespect Venezuela and its sovereignty." [46]
During the past few months the Pentagon has been training the armed forces of Guyana, Venezuela's eastern neighbor, both at home and in the United States. The use of French and Dutch island possessions in the Caribbean for military purposes has already been examined. With the election of Ricardo Martinelli as president of Panama this May putting that country back into the US column, the noose is tightening around Venezuela.
Ecuador refused to renew an agreement with the US for the use of its Manta military base and so Washington lost its basing rights there this month. With the corresponding announcement last week by Colombian President Uribe that he was turning five more military bases over to the Pentagon - three airfields and two navy bases - President Chavez was correct in seeing the move as "a threat against us," and warning that "They are surrounding Venezuela with military bases." [47]
Since the overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, led by military commanders trained at the School of the Americas, alarms have been sounded in Latin America and throughout the world that the coup, far from being an aberration or anachronism, may mark a precedent for more in the near future.
And just as in the final months of the Bush presidency and the first seven months of the current one military operations in Afghanistan, for five years given secondary importance in relation to Iraq, have escalated into the world's major war front, so plans for direct US military aggression in Latin America, dormant since the invasion of Panama in 1989, may be slated for revival.
Notes
1) Russia Today, January 18, 2009
2) Ibid
3) STRATFOR, January 14, 2000
4) Ibid
5) Ottawa Citizen, September 6, 2000
6) Inter Press Service, December 21, 2000
7) Ibid
8) United Press International, April 11, 2000
9) Tampa Bay Times, July 12, 2008
10) Ibid
11) Associated Press, May 24, 2007
12) Associated Press, March 10, 2007
13) Xinhua News Agency, February 18, 2007
14) Xinhua News Agency, December 16, 2006
15) Xinhua News Agency, December 27, 2006
16) Xinhua News Agency, January 20, 2006
17) U.S. Department of Defense, February 1, 2007
18) Reuters, January 29, 2007
19) Australian Associated Press, September 4, 2005
20) Prensa Latina, April 10, 2006
21) The Daily Star, November 24, 2007
22) BBC News, July 8, 2007
23) Agence France-Presse, January 17, 2008
24) Reuters, March 6, 2009
25) Reuters, March 5, 2009
26) Reuters, October 16, 2008
27) Ibid
28) Radio Netherlands, October 30, 2008
29) Russia Today, January 18, 2009
30) Trend News Agency, November 4, 2008
31) Russia Today, January 18, 2009
32) Reuters, January 25, 2008
33) Focus News Agency, March 24, 2008
34) Associated Press, March 1, 2008
35) Reuters, March 4, 2008
36) Associated Press, April 22, 2008
37) Stars and Stripes, April 27, 2008
U.S. presence in Colombia irks Venezuela
By Christopher Toothaker - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Aug 10, 2009 7:39:49 EDT
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez told his military to be prepared for a possible confrontation with Colombia, warning that Bogota’s plans to increase the U.S. military presence at its bases poses a threat to Venezuela.Posted : Monday Aug 10, 2009 7:39:49 EDT
Chavez has issued near daily warnings that Washington could use bases in Colombia to destabilize the region since learning of negotiations to lease seven Colombian military bases to the United States.
“The threat against us is growing,” Chavez said Sunday. “I call on the people and the armed forces, let’s go, ready for combat!”
The former paratroop commander said Colombian soldiers were recently spotted crossing the porous 1,400-mile border that separates the two countries and suggested that Colombia may have been trying to provoke Venezuela’s military.
“They crossed the Orinoco River in a boat and entered Venezuelan territory,” Chavez said. “When our troops arrived, they’d already left.”
In Bogota, Colombia’s foreign ministry issued a news release denying reports that soldiers crossed into Venezuela, after a revision of troop movements by the Colombian military.
Chavez said Venezuela’s foreign ministry would file a formal complaint and warned Colombia that “Venezuela’s military will respond if there’s an attack against Venezuela.”
Chavez said he would attend this week’s summit of the Union of South American Nations in Quito, Ecuador, to urge his Latin American allies to pressure Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to reconsider plans to increase the U.S. military presence.
“We cannot ignore this threat,” Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, “Hello President.”
Chavez also halted shipments of subsidized fuel to Colombia, saying Venezuela should not be sending cheap gasoline to an antagonistic neighbor.
“Let them buy it at the real price. How are we going to favor Uribe’s government in this manner?” he asked.
Colombian officials say Venezuela has no reason to be concerned, and that the U.S. forces would help fight drug trafficking. The proposed 10-year agreement, they claim, would not push the number of American troops and civilian military contractors beyond 1,400 — the maximum currently permitted by U.S. law.
Tensions between the neighboring South American nations also have been heightened over Colombia’s disclosure that three Swedish-made anti-tank weapons found at a rebel camp last year had been purchased by Venezuela’s military.
Chavez has accused Colombia of acting irresponsibly in its accusation that the anti-tank rocket launchers sold to Venezuela in 1988 were obtained by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Sweden confirmed the weapons were originally sold to Venezuela’s military.
Chavez denies aiding the FARC. He claims the United States is using Colombia as part of a broader plan to portray him as a supporter of terrorist groups to provide justification for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.
Chavez said Sunday that diplomatic relations with Uribe’s government “remain frozen” even though he ordered Venezuela’s ambassador to return to Colombia more than a week after he was recalled.
38) Associated Press, May 15, 2008
39) Bloomberg News, May 21, 2008
40) Reuters, May 19, 2008
41) Xinhua News Agency, September 13, 2008
42) Agence France-Presse, July 22, 2009
43) Reuters, October 30, 2008
44) Russian Information Agency Novosti, October 4, 2008
45) Trend News Agency, March 4, 2009
46) Russian Information Agency Novosti, March 9, 2009
47) Associated Press, July 21, 2009
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Secrets of the Honduran Armed Forces
And More Secrets About the US Soldiers Stationed There
By Belén Fernández
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
September 7, 2009
I was forced to visit the Honduran military museum in Tegucigalpa on my own after proving unable to convince any of my Honduran acquaintances that the armed forces were not sufficiently showcased on the streets. A few blocks from the parque central, the museum boasts signs denoting it as such on both sides of the building; I approached the side closest to the park and was directed by a teenage soldier to the opposite side of the building, where another teenage soldier denied that there was a museum on the premises.The soldier nonetheless unlocked the gate for me and motioned me inside, whereupon I directed his attention to a banner listing all of the features of the museum, such as an arms exhibit and a library. He shrugged, and we stood staring at one another until two more young soldiers arrived to confirm that there was in fact a military museum but that it currently being renovated, by the military itself.
 The Soto Cano Air Base in Palmerola, Honduras has 600 US Troops Stationed There. |
The theme of assigning non-military jobs to national armed forces surfaced once again when I ended up seated on a plane out of San Pedro Sula next to a 23-year-old US helicopter pilot, thanks to whom I now know of the existence of the term “gyroscopic procession.” The pilot, who was currently stationed at the joint US-Honduran Palmerola Air Base in the state of Comayagua, explained that he had recently returned from a mission in Costa Rica in which he had been tasked with searching for a lost hiker from Chicago. According to his analysis, the diversification of military chores may have had something to do with the wealth of the lost hiker’s family and the fact that the US military was not supposed to be cooperating with the Honduran military at the moment, as the US State Department was still determining whether or not the June 28 coup against President Mel Zelaya had been military in nature or not.
The pilot reported that the search for the hiker from Chicago had been abandoned after the hiker’s family hired a psychic to guide the helicopters, and cited other recent military chores he had participated in, such as a Black Hawk helicopter deployment to Nicaragua a few days after the coup in order to transport Nicaraguans with cataracts and other afflictions to the USNS Comfort waiting offshore. As for US collaboration with the Honduran armed forces, he explained that it currently consisted of displaying one’s ID to Honduran soldiers guarding the base at Palmerola, but that this was not in fact necessary as the guards’ guns were not loaded anyway.
According to the helicopter pilot, the lack of ammunition was a result of an incident in which an emergency vehicle was fired upon for not stopping; the Honduran military meanwhile had a different interpretation of the contents of its gun barrels, and claimed to merely shoot rubber bullets at anti-coup protesters. The pilot predicted that Honduran battle readiness would plummet even further as a result of the moratorium on military cooperation with the US, although his prediction was not as dire as that of US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens, who had declared at a meeting in August that the Palmerola base had been shut down.
Upon further questioning Llorens had conceded that US troops were still stationed at the base but that they were not talking to anyone, thus casting some doubt on the helicopter pilot’s personal account of taunting bullet-less Honduran guards before finally agreeing to show his ID. The pilot predicted another effect of current US military silence at Palmerola, which was that Honduran soldiers would no longer be able to practice jumping out of US planes and would be limited to jumping off of buildings instead. He allowed that this might in fact constitute a face-saving modification, as it would mean that the Hondurans would no longer have to be removed from trees; the shortage of Honduran military aircraft might meanwhile explain why the military is parking buses on Honduran airfields in order to prevent Zelaya’s sudden homecoming.
Prior to the cessation of bilateral military communications, the helicopter pilot informed me, the Hondurans had participated in US operations against narcoterrorist targets, although their contributions had not affected his estimate that 90 percent of narco traffic still got through to the US. The pilot was not distressed by the minimal success rate of such operations and assured me that the real US war was currently being fought in Afghanistan, a perspective apparently not shared by Honduran army commander Miguel Ángel García Padget.
In an August 5 article in La Prensa, García is reported as declaring that the most serious threat over the next 10 years is for Central America to become a breeding ground for anti-democratic military bases, by which he does not mean the current US military presence that is not talking to him but rather potential Venezuelan bases. García credits Honduras with having halted Hugo Chávez’ expansionist designs on US territory and announces that “la historia nos va a juzgar”—“history will judge us,” the optimism of which is nonetheless bested by Fidel Castro’s 1953 conviction that “la historia me absolverá.” The army commander goes on to remind Hondurans to have faith in the dignity of their armed forces and in the immortality of “that little book called the Constitution,” although he does not establish whether that little book is one of the page-turners that the Honduran military is unable to put down.
Coup general Romeo Vásquez Velásquez elaborates on military dignity elsewhere in the article, affirming that noble sentiments are being taught in all military schools but failing to specify whether the school list includes the former School of the Americas, which he himself attended twice. Vásquez’ remarks indicate that he is unaware of the opinion of the Deputy Mission Chief of the US embassy in Tegucigalpa, Simon Henshaw, who—during the same August meeting in which Ambassador Llorens declared the Palmerola Air Base shut down—had classified Honduran military troops and policemen as “extremely uneducated.” As for sentiments currently being instilled in non-military academies, the front page of the August 18 edition of La Prensa warns of indoctrination in schools nationwide.
As proof of willful coercion of pupils by teachers opposed to military coups, the paper has photographed an exam supposedly administered at a school in San Pedro Sula, which consists of fill-in-the-blank requests such as: “Hondurans have the right to_______.” The exam has been completed and graded prior to being handed over to La Prensa, which draws our attention to the X through the idea that Hondurans have the right to “democracia” when they in fact have the right to “insurección.” A different answer is provided by Honduran Air Force commander Luis Javier Prince in the August 5 La Prensa article lauding Honduran blockage of Venezuelan expansionism, who reckons that Hondurans have the right to “una sustitución presidencial.”
As for other air force employees dabbling outside their traditional range of duties, the US helicopter pilot I met on the plane in San Pedro advised me that he was en route to Fort Benning, Georgia—home to the former School of the Americas—for UFC training. Under the impression that it was stranger for me not to know what the Ultimate Fighting Championship was than for him not to know who Romeo Vásquez Velásquez was, he patiently outlined the martial arts organization for me and explained that he would be importing grappling techniques to Palmerola Air Base.
I joked that the Honduran military would presumably not be invited to the training sessions based on the moratorium on inter-military communications. The helicopter pilot reminded me that the physical size of Honduran soldiers was not compatible with certain sports and made a crushing motion with his hand, which does not constitute an auspicious beginning to the historical judgment that the Honduran armed forces are awaiting from history.
Fuente: http://www.narconews.com/
Outcry in South America over US military base pact
Deal to increase access to Colombia bases angers neighbours and damages Obama's attempts to mend relations with region
Link to this video South American leaders are due to square off tomorrow over a plan to increase US access to military bases in Colombia, a deal that has damaged Barack Obama's attempt to mend relations with the region.
A diplomatic firestorm has been ignited, with a summit in Argentina pitting Colombia – which has sought closer co-operation with Washington – against its neighbours who fear the US presence will threaten leftist governments.
Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, has led the denunciations, claiming US imperialist aggression was blowing "winds of war". He has vowed to buy extra Russian tanks to defend his socialist revolution and told his cabinet to prepare for ruptured relations with Bogotá.
Colombia responded with a formal complaint to the Organisation of American States, a pan-regional body, accusing Chávez of "expansionism" and meddling in its internal affairs.
The row has left Bogotá isolated, however. Bolivia and Ecuador's socialist leaders have condemned the bases plan and even the more centrist governments of Argentina, Brazil and Chile have expressed unease.
Washington and Bogotá have scrambled to defend the pact, which is close to being finalised, as a mere administrative tweaking of their decade-long military co-operation to combat drug traffickers and leftist guerrillas. The proposed 10-year lease will give the US access to at least seven Colombian bases – three air force, two naval and two army – stretching from the Pacific to the Caribbean.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said there was no intention to expand the number of permanent personnel beyond the maximum permitted by Congress: 800 military and 600 civilian contractors.
"Any US activity will have to be mutually agreed upon in advance. The United States does not have, and does not seek, bases inside Colombia. Second, there will be no significant permanent increase in the US military presence in Colombia."
America turned to Colombia after Ecuador refused to renew an agreement giving access to its Manta airbase. Officials said the pact with Colombia stemmed from a proposed $46m (£28m) upgrade of Palanquero base north of Bogota. Washington did not want to spend that kind of money without a formal deal.
But a region scarred by memories of CIA-backed dictatorships in the 70s and 80s has balked at the prospect of "gringo" boots and aircraft stationed on their continent, notwithstanding goodwill for the new occupant of the White House.
"Washington should not have been surprised by the controversy it generated," said Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank. "Obama may be appealing and popular, but there is still a lot of historical baggage and real suspicions about US motives in the region.
"The costs could have been easily avoided with more skillful and sustained diplomatic work by senior US officials."
Privately, US officials concede Chávez has outmanoeuvred them with hype calculated to tap continental grievances. Although he has not mobilised troops and his talk of war is widely seen as bombast, some analysts say Colombia's neighbours have legitimate cause for concern.
Washington has not fully explained its mandate nor the scope and nature of its operations, wrote Adam Isacson, of the Centre for International Policy, which monitors US initiatives in Colombia. "The United States is creating a new capability in South America, and capabilities often get used."
Colombia's US-supported military has won plaudits at home for pushing back Farc guerrillas but has also provoked dismay over its human rights abuses and a cross-border raid into Ecuador last year.
Colombia's conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, spent last week touring the region trying to soothe neighbours in advance of tomorrow's Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit.
Brazil and Chile, which have stable relations with Washington, were partly mollified, but Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, yesterday reiterated his government's concern. "The presence of foreign bases in South America awakens sensibilities of a political and even psychological nature that should be taken into account."
Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, called for a continent-wide referendum on the plan. "If the Colombian president wants his bases to be used, I say I want a referendum in South America so the people of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina all 12 countries can decide," he said.
The feuding will test Brazil's hopes of moulding Unasur, which was founded last year, into a vehicle for regional integration along the lines of the EU.
South America Continues It's War Against The DEA In a slightly shocking move, Argentina and Mexico have both taken some giant steps towards the decriminalisation of drugs, which seems to be part of Latin America's 'war on the DEA', as opposed to the DEA's 'war on drugs'. The United States has always painted South America as a corrupt continent which is crowded with drug growers, producers and transporters, but in recent decades an opinion has emerged that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) along with other US agencies - including the FBI and CIA - were infact the biggest transporters of drugs from the continent to the west, thus creating many armed factions who would do the work on the ground for the DEA, and cause a great deal of anguish for the South American population in the process. But since a socialist vibe has begun to overtake South America, around the turn of the century, it's leaders have been hitting back with actions which takes the DEA on, head-on, and this latest move by two of the United States' biggest continental allies seems to be one of the most extreme of those measures. September.05.2009 [ARGENTINA/MEXICO] by George Valentine Corr, BlatantNews.com Editor WHAT BROUGHT THIS DECRIMINILISATION ABOUT? The 'Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy' is group of prominent political figures from the South American continent which includes former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), César Gaviria (Colombia) and Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico). It's mission is to find an alternative to the United States DEA's 'war on drugs', which they claim is ineffective and counter-productive, and earlier this year they released a report with recommendations which include the decriminalisation of personal amounts of illegal drugs, to facilitate pouring all of their resources into fighting the cartels, instead of individual drug users and addicts. They believe that a new approach is needed and that the west's policies are just not working. They say... "The United States is arguably the industrialized country that has invested the highest amount of resources in the fight against the narcotics trade. The problem lies in the effectiveness and consequences of its actions. Its policy of massive incarceration of drug users, questionable both in terms of respect for human rights and its efficiency, is hardly applicable to Latin America, given the penal system’s overpopulation and material conditions. This repressive policy also facilitates consumer extortion and police corruption. The United States allocates a much larger proportion of resources to eradication and interdiction as well as to maintaining its legal and penal system than to investments in health, prevention, treatment and the rehabilitation of drug users". This is the public reasoning, but behind closed doors they will also speak about the CIA, FBI and DEA involvement in the drug trade, because to many in South America, they are the largest players and the cartel's are often thought of as their local stooges. This intolerable situation, where South America is being used to fuel a US$300bn global drug trade (US$60bn in the US alone according to the United Nations), has forced the continent to come up with this completely new plan, and some countries are already beginning to implement some of the recommended measures. ARGENTINA & MEXICO TO DECRIMINALISE DRUGS! That the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy is led by former presidents, says a lot. Nobody knows what the US backlash will be, and this is why it takes those presidents in retirement - towards the end of their lives with a little less to loose, and possibly a conscience to clear - to step up to the plate, and make some decisions that the US will certainly be steaming over. What is also unsure is how many countries will work with those recommendations, and which countries will be brave enough to do so. Personally it is a real surprise to see that it is Mexico and Argentina which are taking the lead here, with Brazil and Ecuador thinking about it too, according to Iran's Press TV. Before all of this had happened Colombia had decriminalised the possession of some drugs, but this new wave of policies has begun with Mexico. They got the ball rolling on the 21st of August by decriminalising personal amounts of many major drugs, including marijuana, methamphetamines, heroin, LSD and cocaine. Those new Mexican laws state that instead of being arrested, people found with small amounts in their possession (there are different amounts specified for each particular drug) will be advised to go to rehab clinics. If someone is caught three times, they will be forced to enter a rehabilitation program. Argentina's new drug laws may be a little narrower in scope. The countries Supreme Court decriminalized the small-scale use of marijuana last week, which basically sets in motion the possibility of further decriminalisation of narcotics. They said that they based their ruling on it being unconstitutional to prosecute cases involving the private use of marijuana, because that was a personal choice, and should not be punished. Some interesting quotes from that ruling include "Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state", and "Behaviour in private is legal, as long as it doesn't constitute clear danger", according to the New York Daily News. The Supreme Court has asked the Argentine government to adjust the countries laws based on this ruling, and many believe that they will need to include other illegal drugs if they do start working on those laws. IS THE 'WAR ON DRUGS' OVER? http://www.blatantnews.com/news/south_america_continues_its_war_against_the_dea.htmlWashington's 'war on drugs' began under Nixon in the 1960's, and it has not even put a dent in the global narcotic supply chain, and now many people are beginning to ask why? It seems that most of this war is actually carried out on the South American continent, but the majority of the worlds cocaine and cannabis still originates from there, aswell as opium and heroin exports on the rise recently. Another part of the world which has seen a massive US 'war on drugs' intervention is Afghanistan since the US invasion, which has led to the country becoming the largest producer of heroin in the world again. It seems that the DEA's attempts to upset the supply chain not only doesn't work, it apparently leads to even bigger exports. Regarding the new Mexican and Argentinean law changes, Barack Obama and his administration have dropped some muted comments about it not being a good idea, but they have been forced to sit back and say nothing for now. Maybe all of their pressure is happening in the background, because it would seem a little strange if they did come out and totally negate this new Latino policy turnaround, as it would mean that they would come face to face with that original Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy report, which makes highly interesting reading indeed. As does the figures for arrests in the US. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), there were 14 million arrests in the US in 2007, and the biggest portion of those were for drugs offences. In total 1.8 million people were arrested for drug-related crimes - 13% of all 2007 arrests - and the past Latin leaders have decided that their lands will not be turned into this kind of anti-social revolving door prison-system. It is now up to their current governments, courts and lawmakers to follow through with these drastic, but possibly much needed, measures. Any new approach should be welcomed in the real 'war on drugs', because nothing has changed globally in the past five decades under the DEA's. |
UN Names Evo Morales “World Hero of Mother Earth”
Bolivian president Evo Morales has been declared “World Hero of Mother Earth,” by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
The first indigenous head of state in the Americas was presented with a medal and scroll in a ceremony in La Paz on Saturday, August 29.
Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales (left), received a traditional ceremonial staff from an Indian wise man at the sacred place of Tiwanaku.
Morales said that the award was not for him, but for “our ancestors, the native peoples who defended Mother Earth before colonialism, during the colonial period and during the republic.”
Morales said Bolivia’s experience in raising “living in harmony with the defense of Mother Earth” has international repercussions. He gave Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca credit for proposing the policy of “Buen Vivir” – living in harmony with Mother Earth – when the governmental program was first developed.
Morales is one of three world leaders to be given “World Hero” awards. The others are Cuban president Fidel Castro, named World Hero of Solidarity and the late president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, named World Hero of Social Justice.
The water problems involved Bechtel, one of the most evil companies in the U.S.“Before privatisation, farmers and citizens had their own water rights, but after the corporation entered the ring their water became property which could be bought and sold for a high price out of reach for the average Bolivian. Everybody has the right to clean fresh water, and Bolivia’s citizens were denied this right due to the greediness of corporations.
The Bolivian people, however did not stand for this, they revolted and protested against the corporations especially when they refused to consider reducing their rates. Eventually the people power was successful and Becthe and Suezl was thrown out of Bolivia. However they did attempt to sue the country of Bolivia for $50 million but later dropped their case.
For more information see Sustainable Development.
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Morales: Relations Can Improve If US Stops Meddling
Read More: Bolivia, Evo Morales, Evo Morales Us Relations, Foreign Affairs, La Paz, Latin America, Morales Obama, Obama Bolivia, Obama Morales, World News
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Bolivia's President Evo Morales, right, shakes hands with Thomas Shannon, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, during a meeting at the presidential palace in La Paz, Thursday, May 21, 2009. Shannon is on a two-day visit to Bolivia. (AP Photo/ Juan Karita)
LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales called for an about-face in relations with Washington on Thursday, saying past diplomatic spats can be overcome if the new U.S. government refrains from meddling in Bolivian affairs.
Morales met with U.S. envoy Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, who said their talks were a "good start" toward improving ties.
Morales urged the U.S. not to interfere in Bolivian domestic matters, as he often claims it does, and said the nations must treat each other with "mutual respect." His government has expressed hope for improved ties under President Barack Obama, although Morales last month said he still believes Washington is conspiring against him.
The leftist leader, a close ally of Venezuela and Cuba, also said U.S. aid should go to his government rather than to the private groups he claims are working to oust him.
U.S.-Bolivian relations frayed last year when Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador to La Paz, claiming the diplomat had conspired with his opponents to incite violence. He also suspended cooperation with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, accusing them of espionage and funding "criminal groups" trying to undermine his government.
U.S. officials denied the charges, and former President George W. Bush's administration booted Bolivia's envoy to Washington, suspended trade preferences and added Bolivia to its anti-narcotics blacklist.
Though little concrete progress was made after two days of meetings, talks helped reset the tone to pursue a new relationship, officials on both sides said.
Bolivia will not welcome the DEA in its territory, but it does acknowledge the anti-drug fight as a shared responsibility, Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana said after meeting with Shannon later Thursday.
Shannon acknowledged that persisting differences will require "creative diplomacy," but said the U.S. hopes "to have relations of equality with all the countries of Latin America."
"We've found the Bolivian government very willing and deeply interested in building a new stage in relations," he said.
Shannon declined to comment on a report he would be named the next U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, saying the decision rests with the American president and the White House has not announced an appointment.
Morales met with U.S. envoy Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, who said their talks were a "good start" toward improving ties.
Morales urged the U.S. not to interfere in Bolivian domestic matters, as he often claims it does, and said the nations must treat each other with "mutual respect." His government has expressed hope for improved ties under President Barack Obama, although Morales last month said he still believes Washington is conspiring against him.
The leftist leader, a close ally of Venezuela and Cuba, also said U.S. aid should go to his government rather than to the private groups he claims are working to oust him.
U.S.-Bolivian relations frayed last year when Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador to La Paz, claiming the diplomat had conspired with his opponents to incite violence. He also suspended cooperation with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, accusing them of espionage and funding "criminal groups" trying to undermine his government.
U.S. officials denied the charges, and former President George W. Bush's administration booted Bolivia's envoy to Washington, suspended trade preferences and added Bolivia to its anti-narcotics blacklist.
Though little concrete progress was made after two days of meetings, talks helped reset the tone to pursue a new relationship, officials on both sides said.
Bolivia will not welcome the DEA in its territory, but it does acknowledge the anti-drug fight as a shared responsibility, Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana said after meeting with Shannon later Thursday.
Shannon acknowledged that persisting differences will require "creative diplomacy," but said the U.S. hopes "to have relations of equality with all the countries of Latin America."
"We've found the Bolivian government very willing and deeply interested in building a new stage in relations," he said.
Shannon declined to comment on a report he would be named the next U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, saying the decision rests with the American president and the White House has not announced an appointment.
Fifty Killed in Peruvian Protest For Native Rights Posted by Travis Kaya on June 8, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Protests by Peruvian indigenous rights groups turned violent last week as a clash between police forces and protesters left more than 50 dead in the town of Bagua.On Friday, hundredss of Indians took to the streets of the northern Peruvian city in traditional garb, vowing to physically block developers from entering their ancestral homelands. Violence erupted as Peruvian President Alan Garcia ordered government forces to enforce a curfew in the Bagua region, which has been the center of the native rights protests since they began last April.
According to preliminary reports, police forces shot into crowds of peaceful protesters from helicopters. Garcia claims, however, that the Peruvian police forces were simply retaliating to protester aggression. More than 20 police officers were killed during the protest crackdown, including 11 who were attacked while removing a blockade from a remote jungle pass. A number of police officers were stabbed with wooden spears or had their throats slit (via The Wall Street Journal).
The protest was the bloodiest in a string of demonstrations aimed at preventing the government from selling off parcels of the Peruvian Amazon for development by international energy companies. The months-long protests were sparked by trade agreements with the United States– signed in the final days of the Bush Administration–that opened up wide swaths of the Peruvian jungle for mining and oil drilling. Despite Garcia’s claims that the government controls all of the Amazon territory, native rights groups have been up in arms over what they perceive as an intrusion into longstanding communal land systems. An international movement has galvanized around the Indian struggle in Peru. American protesters (including TakePart blogger Q’orianka Kilcher) have called on President Garcia to restore land rights to the native population.
The protests place President Garcia in a precarious political situation, as he attempts to honor free trade agreements with the US while grappling with a 30 percent approval rating at home. Although Garcia has repeatedly claimed that opening up the Amazon territory to foreign investors will improve economic conditions across the entire nation, the protests have exacerbated the social divide between the elites in Lima and the indigenous population. In order to maintain legitimacy in light of the protests, Garcia is expected to make some major changes in his cabinet, though he is unlikely to give into protesters’ demands. Garcia has likened the protesters to terrorists and said that they may be receiving support from abroad. Members of the Garcia government have linked indigenous rights groups to the leftist leaders like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.
photo credit: RyoAce’s Flickr photostream (creative commons)
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