Ever wonder why we Americans keep fighting all these wars & losing them, Reagan's triumph over Granada notwithstanding? Why does it seem irrelevant whether we win or lose? Might the answer be that war profiteers haul away train loads of cash correlated to body count regardless of the outcome of the war? Might it be that a sizeable sector of our economy is completely dependent on waging off shore wars?
Central & South America are in the crosshairs of the Pentagon & America's war industry. With the economy on its knees & the Iraq war a settled loss & winding down, with Afghanistan stumbling from mess to disaster to mess, the sense that Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, GE, et. al., are drooling down the necks of war planners at the Pentagon for another war is palpable.
With the surprise announcement on July 15, by right wing President Álvaro Uribe Vélez that the U.S. Government would station American military personnel & equipment in seven Colombian bases, the response was predictable & dark. Openly moving American troops to bases the U.S. military calls Forward Operating Locations (FOLs)*, in Colombia is pure belligerence & a provocation for war & everyone but the main stream American media seems to know it. That Colombia is a corrupted narco-state & the region's most repressive death squad democracy changes nothing whatsoever.
In any case, the agreement raises some grisly questions about immunity which is another way of saying US soldiers, pilots and sailors cannot be prosecuted in Colombian &/or presumably international courts for war crimes. Sound familiar? It is the over riding reason the U.S. refuses to sign on to the legal agreements of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Imagine what would happen if a similar agreement was established for installing Mexican military personnel in Texas.
The former head of Colombia's constitutional court, Jose Gregorio Hernandez, told AFP, "Immunity for United States soldiers is not in any way justified. It violates the principle of equality vis-à-vis our own soldiers. This immunity could become impunity because... a slow and likely unsuccessful diplomatic process would be required (before justice could be applied)."
Yang Qingchuan, in an article for Global Research, writes, “After the U.S. military withdrawal from Panama in 1999, the Pentagon has been expanding the "cooperative security locations" in the region. The U.S. Southern Command also operates some 17 radar sites, mostly in Peru and Colombia. All of the above is in addition to existing U.S. bases in Latin America, including a missile tracking station on Ascension Island in the Caribbean, and Soto Cano in Palmerola, Honduras. Furthermore, the United States has small military presences and property in Antigua, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and on AndrosIsland in the Bahamas.”
Don't make the mistake of forgetting that these numbers are totally unreliable. With somewhere around 45% of defense budget numbers black & virtually 100% of CIA & NSA funds black, there is no chance of getting an accurate picture of what the U.S. Government is up to around the world with all these military facilities & assorted bases & "cooperative security locations.” (See the asterisk note below.)
President of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, warned that all these bases pose a threat to the region. "I'm fulfilling my moral obligation to warn you that the winds of war are beginning to blow," concluding that the situation could end tragically. At the Quito summit of the Union of South American Nations, President Chavez, with the strong support of Ecuador & Bolivia, warned that Colombian soldiers had been placed under the command of U.S military forces. Under laws mandated by the Organization of American States (OAS), the world's oldest regional organization, that decision should be understood as aggression & clearly illegal. It should be noted that prior to being elected in 1998, Hugo Chavez attempted his own coup d'état. He knows what he's talking about.
Significantly, Venezuela recently purchased 24 Russian and Chinese-developed Su-30MK2s, a modern fighter considered to have superior performance over the 1980's US F/A-18.
Monsenior Juan Cordoba, secretary of the conference of Catholic bishops in Colombia told Caracol Television, "This was a bit abrupt and we felt invaded, we felt like we were surrounded by 'gringos.'"
Ecuador is under no illusions about U.S & Colombian intentions & earlier reinforced its northern border with Colombia by moving 1200 soldiers to support some 10,500 soldiers & police personnel already stationed in Esmeraldas Province according to Ecuavisa Television. Ecuador has positioned 24 Brazilian Super Tucano combat aircraft & two frigates to support its troops. This is in part a result of an incursion in March, 2008, by Colombian forces in conjunction with U.S. intelligence & paramilitaries into Ecuadorean territory during which Raul Reyes, a prominent senior leader of the leftist guerilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed. Following the attack, Ecuador cut ties with Colombia. In a disputed Agence France Presse Report, Colombian soldiers claimed they recovered computer hard drives & flash drives with data linking Chavez to both the leftist guerrillas & drug trafficking.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, a close Chavez ally, is openly critical of Colombia's motives, stating that US forces would use the Colombian bases for military purposes. Quito has struggled over the years to contain violence along its border with Colombia made unstable & dangerous by insurgent groups, foreign paramilitaries and drug traffickers. The situation there worsens by the day.
In Quito, on August 10, Presidents & heads of State of South American countries at the summit of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), signed the Quito Declaration. Referring to José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, in part, the document reads "We will not recognize, in any way, the alteration of institutional, democratic order," & condemns the coup d'état in Honduras by demanding the immediate restitution of the constitutionally elected president of that country. Roberto Micheletti Bain, the coup leader, has already told Venezuela's envoys to leave, but they have refused, the essence of their position being that Micheletti & his military backers with the support of the CEAL, the Latin American version of the Chamber of Commerce have no authority to expel them. They are all too familiar with how these things go & are no doubt keenly aware that Roberto Micheletti's current security adviser, Billy Joya, was a member of one of those bloody Reagan-era death squads. This coup, just as it was during the Reagan & assorted Bush administrations, was about servicing the interests of the business class & the wealthy elite such as the Kafis, the Canahuatis, the Facusses, the Naars, the Vasquez Velasquez families.
In response to universal rejection of the Honduran coup by OAS members (Canadian Foreign Minister for the Americas Peter Kent was the only person in the room to vocally oppose the plan for Zelaya to return to Honduras immediately), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported their response & stated the U.S. Government did not recognize Micheletti's government.
On Tuesday, August 18, she made another statement regarding the Colombian bases in which she:
defended an imminent agreement that will give the United States access to military bases in Colombia, amid regional concerns about US intentions. Clinton and visiting Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the two countries expected to sign a defense cooperation agreement soon that will boost their longstanding military ties. "I want to be clear about what this agreement does and does not. First: the agreement does not create US bases in Colombia, it does provide US access to Colombian bases," Clinton said after a meeting with Bermudez. "This agreement does not pertain to other countries. This is about the bilateral cooperation between the United States and Colombia regarding security matters within Colombia.” Leftist leaders in Venezuela and Ecuador, which border Colombia, have loudly denounced the agreement as a ruse to establish bases that threaten their governments. The US plans also have raised concerns among more moderate Latin American leaders. Clinton said the US and Colombian governments hope to sign the agreement "in the near future. It will allow us to continue working together to meet the challenges posed by narco-traffickers, terrorists, and other illegal armed groups in Colombia," she said, adding, "These threats are real."
Obama's position can be found in similarly bizarre comments like the United States has "no intent in establishing a U.S. military base in Colombia." Just what “base” means to these guys is anybody's guess. In the face of obvious, copious & very available facts & information to the contrary, Cheneyesque comments like that are enough to make your skin crawl all the way to Pittsburg. What is all too clear is that the Obama administration has decided to increase U.S. military activities in the area.
The situation is not altogether hopeless as pressure mounts both within & outside the U.S., as can be seen in this statement by Professor of Anthropology, at American University, Adrienne Pine, “The US, if it wanted to, could end this de facto government, this murderous coup government in a day. And that's not intervention; that's merely complying with its own laws. And, instead, what the Secretary of State has done has been talking as if she recognized this as a coup, but in fact supporting the coup government by refusing to take the actions required by law of the United States.”
Obama was elected in part because he promised fundamental change in American foreign policy. He made a similar pledge regarding health care. In both cases corporate interests & their hired hacks have derailed Obama's political goals. More importantly, these goals have the preponderant support of the American people.
Referring to the US presence in Latin America, Bolivian President, Juan Evo Morales Ayma, said that members of the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), located in Miami, Florida, one of the Department of Defense's ten Unified Combatant Commands (COCOMs) under the command of Air Force General Douglas M. Fraser, had taken part in the coup d'état in Honduras last June 28. Morales appealed to the Union of South American Nations stating that they were obligated to protect not only the Colombian people, but all Latin American states from similar events.
President Chavez wasted no time weighing in & revealed that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya had told him that the military who kidnapped him at his government house the night of June 28 transferred him by plane to a U.S. military base in the locality of Palmerola, in Honduran territory.
"Zelaya told me so. They put Zelaya in the plane and landed at Palmerola with the president a prisoner and the Yankee officials appeared and knew that the president was there, they had a discussion with the Honduran officials. Then the Yankee military took the decision there to send him to Costa Rica. That is a very serious matter, the president of Honduras was in a Yankee military base,” said President Chavez.
Chavez said that in this respect “the Yankees overthrew Zelaya and Obama doesn't understand. " He needs to study a little more, he's a young man.” At the same time he recalled that “from the Yankee base, which is at a place called Palmerola, they carried out all of the operations and the dirty war and the terrorism against Sandinista Nicaragua, against El Salvador; it wasn't long ago that the Yankees turned Honduras into a platform to attack its neighbors.”
He reiterated that the people demand the cessation of U.S. interventionism in the region. “What we are asking is that he withdraw the Palmerola base, that he withdraw the Guantanamo base where they torture. Obama, wake up!”
President Zelaya confirmed this in a statement on Democracy Now:
“They attacked my house at 5:30 in the morning. A group of at least 200 to 250 armed soldiers with hoods and bulletproof vests and rifles aimed their guns at me, fired shots, used machine guns, kicked down the doors, and just as I was, in pajamas, they put me on a plane and flew me to Costa Rica.”
On this program Lanny Davis, a friend & former supporter of Hillary Clinton & now on the payroll of CEAL, attempted to establish the coup as a legal event of some kind mandated by dubious circumstances. Davis is the American face of corrupt Washington interests involved in the coup. His cohorts have considerable influence witnessed by the fact that the Honduran ambassador has not been recalled, no Honduran assets have been seized, no visas have been revoked, no sanctions have been established, all aid remains in place, & no bases have been closed. The obvious reason for this is that 70% of Honduran exports made possible by cheap labor go to the United States. Despite official statements to the contrary, U.S. government involvement in & support for the coup is all too obvious.
A recent statement by the president of the Human Rights Committee of Honduras (CODEH), Andres Pavon, made it clear the people of Honduras were determined to restore a legal government, "We are going to the International Criminal Court."
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva added, "As the Brazilian President, I am upset about the atmosphere of uncertainty the region is living today."
At the Quito summit, Argentinean President Cristina Elizabeth Fernández de Kirchner expressed her concern about the region's ominous drift toward war & particularly so in the face of Álvaro Uribe's conspicuous absence. She called Uribe's deal with the Pentagon “belligerent.”
It prompted Uruguayan President Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas to propose banning foreign military bases in the region and Brazilian President Silva also expressed concern & support.
In response to even earlier U.S. military aggression, Rep. Barbara Lee and ten other members of Congress attempted to put legislation in place calling for an investigation of the Bush Administration's role in the 2004 coup d'état of Haiti. The original bill, known as the TRUTH Act, has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at every session since Lee first made the case for a congressional investigation in March of 2004:
"We do not teach people to overthrow our US government, and the Bush Administration must not participate in the overthrow of other democratically-elected governments. The United States must stand firm in its support of democracy and not allow a nascent democracy like Haiti to fall victim to the Bush Administration's apparent policy of regime change."
Rep. Barbara Lee's comments are no less important for the current administration to take to heart.
Although the disintegrating relationship with Ecuador, Micheletti's U.S. backed coup in Honduras, the military buildup in Colombia & the increasingly intense U.S hostility toward Venezuela can be seen as simply the latest stage in American military & covert aggression in Central & South America, it would be a reckless mistake for American citizens to understand these cookie cutter coups & their related events as anything other than the Pentagon & war profiteers putting in place the pretexts for America's next invasion cum all out war.
As seductive & entertaining as the nation's bizarre shouting match with Republican fence posts over such vital issues as healthcare might be, members of the far right from both parties are up to their ears in actions that could easily & more than likely will lead to another blood bath.
* Note:In case it is unclear what a FOL is, an anonymous Pentagon source told a Miami Herald reporter that FOLs are "expandable warm facilities maintained with a limited U.S. military support presence and possibly prepositioned equipment," such as the Incirlik Airbase in Turkey and the Soto Cano Airbase in Honduras. Some call the FOLs clandestine bases with no documented officially recognized status. A glimpse of what might be in store for Colombia is Afghanistan, where roughly half of the soldiers fighting for the U.S. Government are mercenaries under contract.
Other types of foreign military bases are "Main operating bases," which have permanent personnel, strong infrastructure, and often family housing, such as the Kadena Airbase in Japan and the Ramstein Airbase in Germany. Another type is "cooperative security locations," which are sites with few or no permanent U.S. personnel, maintained by contractors, or mercenaries & made available by the host nation for occasional use by the U.S. military.
Bear in mind that according to the Defense Department's (DOD) annual "Base Structure Report" for fiscal year 2008, the Pentagon currently owns or rents 761 overseas bases in roughly 130 countries which includes 322,000 hectares of land with an inventory of weapons worth trillions of U.S. dollars. Others suggest there are at least 900 U.S. military facilities in 46 countries and territories, accommodating 190,000 U.S. troops and 115,000 civilian employees, all taken from “official” government figures. None of the above includes what the DOD calls “other sites,” nor does it include the numerous unclassified, or “black,” sites & temporary sites operated by the U.S. Government. In Central & South America, the DOD admits to 46 active bases in Colombia with 8 “other” sites. In Ecuador the U.S. has 27 active bases & 0 “other.” In Peru, the Navy maintains an active Naval Medical Research Center in Lima. It might be interesting to tour that place.
We are now the most lethal military empire in history. As before, now & always it is a one way road to unimaginable horror & violence.
Sources & a bit more information:
Lost History by Robert Perry
Secrecy & Privilege. By Robert Perry
Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing by Tim Shorrock,
"The Power to Construct International Security: On the Significance of Private Military Companies," by Anna Lleander, Millennium - Journal of International Studies
Senate Armed Services Committee
“Obama Latin America speech in Miami,” Lynn Sweet
Joint Task Force Bravo, Southcom
Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Economic Crises by Prof. James Petras
Base Structure Report, the Pentagon for fiscal year 2008
Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Economic Crises by Prof. James Petras
Base Structure Report, the Pentagon for fiscal year 2008
Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Economic Crises by Prof. James Petras
Base Structure Report, the Pentagon for fiscal year 2008
Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Economic Crises by Prof. James Petras
Base Structure Report, the Pentagon for fiscal year 2008
by Dick Overfield
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