Vol. 72/No. 25      June 23, 2008

The Fourth Fleet will not have ships permanently assigned to it. Instead, like the Fifth Fleet assigned to the Persian Gulf, the fleet’s function will be to staff, train, and equip all ships and submarines deployed to the area. The command structure is patterned after the naval component of the U.S. Central Command in that the admiral of the Southern Command in charge of all naval forces in that area will also command the Fourth Fleet.

Navy Rear Admiral James Stevenson, the former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, said April 30 that the Navy is “very mindful of the 40 percent of U.S. trade that goes on with those countries and the 50 percent of the oil imports from that region.”

U.S. Navy officials said the fleet’s operations will focus on countering “narcoterrorism” activities, joint exercises with military allies in the region, and “humanitarian missions.”

The Fourth Fleet was first created in 1943 during World War II and discontinued seven years later. The U.S. Navy, however, maintains a constant and notable presence in the region.

A six-month naval deployment throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, called Partnership of the Americas 2008, has been underway since April. As part of the military exercises, the USS George Washington aircraft carrier conducted joint training exercises for nearly two months with Brazilian and Argentine naval units. Under the guise of carrying out “humanitarian missions” the U.S. Navy and Marines are also planning to conduct joint exercises with military units from 14 Latin American countries.

The U.S. military also carries out hundreds of surveillance flights from its bases in the region, and from the United States.

On May 17, a U.S. Navy aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace close to the island of La Orchila and just 80 miles off the coast of Venezuela, where a military base and a presidential residence is located. The Pentagon said the plane, which belongs to the Joint Interagency Task Force South, was on an “antinarcotics” mission from the Caribbean island of Curaçao.

The government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez protested this provocation, and another violation of its territory that occurred the day before when Colombian soldiers crossed into Venezuelan territory.

On May 14, Chávez warned the Colombian government not to allow the U.S. military to establish a base in La Guajira, a border region shared between the two countries.

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa has said he will not renew Washington’s 10-year lease on its naval base in the Pacific port of Manta when it expires next year. Chávez said U.S. ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield had suggested that the Manta base could be moved to La Guajira.  
 
 
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