At least 150 U.S. special forces troops have been sent to Colombia as part of a $1.3 billion military training and aid initiative by Washington. The U.S. is also working with the government of Peru to establish military patrols of the Amazon river basin.

Testifying before a Congressional committee last March, Gen. Charles Wilhelm, the commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command, spoke about the Pentagon's perspective for the region. "The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Panama and return of U.S. bases required us to reestablish an effective theater architecture as a top priority," stated Wilhelm, who pointed to the need for "FOLs" (forward operating locations) to "better position our assets."

Since returning the Panama Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999, Washington closed Howard Air Force Base in that country and transferred the headquarters for the Southern Command to Puerto Rico. Panama has been used by U.S. imperialism as a base for military intervention in the region for decades.

Noting the continuing economic crisis and social instability in the region, the general added, "Many of the nations in our AOR [Area of Responsibility] are burdened with problems that frustrate internal development and threaten political stability." Pointing to "changes in the political climate and growing economic challenges," he called for "increas[ing] our engagement in several areas."

Washington thinly veils this restructuring of U.S. military "assets" on the ground in Latin America as part of the "war on drugs." This was the rationale used for passage of the two-year $1.3 billion military aid package last July by the U.S. Congress. Among the duties of the 150 U.S. military personnel is training three Colombian army battalions to be the spearhead of a renewed government offensive against armed opposition groups, such as the 20,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which controls up to 40 percent of the country, and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN).

To aid this effort the U.S. government will also supply the regime with an armada of 18 Blackhawk and 42 Huey military helicopters to ferry troops, as well as a $500 million grant to the Colombian army and police. A Pentagon official told the Washington Post, "We'll find out in January whether the military's southern offensive will demonstrate, for the first time in Colombia's protracted guerrilla war, that it can seize and hold the initiative."

Washington's military "aid" package to Colombia is the fourth largest outlay after the regimes in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. It was supposed to be conditional until the secretary of state certified the Colombian military's "human rights performance" was improving. However, U.S. president William Clinton exercised a waiver of this provision on "national security" grounds.

President George Bush made clear during his election campaign that he backs this deepening U.S. military intervention in Colombia, and his new administration will be taking major responsibility for implementing this. A slightly different point of view from that of Bush was put forward by Donald Rumsfeld during his confirmation hearings for the cabinet post of secretary of defense. He stated that he had not yet formulated an opinion on the $1.3 billion military package being given to Colombia. What's involved in going after drug production there, according to Rumsfeld, is "overwhelmingly a demand problem. If demand persists, it's going to get what it wants. And if it isn't from Colombia, it's going to be from someplace else."  
 
Protests in Ecuador
The U.S. formally gained access to a military base in Manta, Ecuador, in November 1999, signing a 10-year lease with then Ecuadoran president Jamil Mahuad. Implementation was slowed when mass protests against Mahuad's austerity drive removed him from office. During the May Day protests last year, which attracted 50,000 workers, Indian peasants, and youth for a march through the streets of Quito, the capital city, part of the demonstrators rallied in front of the U.S. embassy to protest against the U.S. military base. They carried signs in Quechua saying, Americans out of Manta. One of the chants of the marchers was, "We don't want to be a U.S. colony."

But Washington is now upgrading the facility--the second largest port on that nation's coast--to be what Wilhelm calls "my number one priority" as "the only FOL that enables us to achieve full coverage of Peru, Colombia, and...areas of Bolivia." This includes spending $62 million to expand and improve runways and hangars and construction of living quarters for 200 U.S. military and civilian contract personnel.

According to the New York Times, the base "will be able to provide round-the-clock tracking of activity in Colombia and neighboring countries through a pair of Awacs surveillance planes...and tankers to refuel them in the air." The Times adds, "The planes will also be able to monitor air and marine activity well into the Caribbean."

Plans are in the works to upgrade airfields in the Dutch colonies of Aruba and Curaçao to accommodate more sizable U.S. military aircraft after a ten-year pact was signed between Washington and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The agreement in El Salvador allows U.S. forces to use the Comalapa International Airport for the next decade. The U.S. military will have access to Salvadoran ports, sea lanes, air space, and various government installations, while Salvadoran authorities will not have authorization to enter U.S. installations, according to a report issued by the Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico.

The U.S. rulers have also maintained a military presence in Honduras--just over 500 personnel--since 1984, when it set up a massive base of operations to organize the contra war to attempt to overthrow the workers and peasants government in Nicaragua.

In all, Wilhelm told Congress, during 1999 "we conducted more than 2,800 engagement events throughout" Latin America --military training, joint exercises, and "counterdrug" operations--that involved more than 55,000 U.S. military personnel.

Ending a ban of more than two decades against selling sophisticated U.S. weaponry in Latin America, the Clinton administration in its final days in office set in motion plans to approve the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Chile. Advisers to President George Bush said they expected him to support the sale, the final arrangements of which may take six months.

Washington hopes this move will open up further opportunities to expand these sales and joint military training operations to other countries in South America as well.  
 
 
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