Snow Crash
07-26-2009, 11:00 PM
As some may have noticed recently, Colombia's right-wing Uribe Government looks set to allow the US to establish a serious military presence within its borders. This has of course, caused uproar amongst both domestic and international players in the region.
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Uribe Agrees US "Access" to Military Bases
BOGOTA, Jul 17 (IPS) - With parliament in recess, the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe confirmed that it would give the United States access to at least three military bases.
"It sounds to me like the U.S. is planning to increase its overall military and paramilitary engagement in the Colombian conflict," said Wilbert van der Zeijden, a researcher on militarism and globalisation at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.
Van der Zeijden, who is also executive coordinator of the Netherlands-based International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases (or No Bases Network), did not rule out the possibility that U.S. forces "plan to engage in on-the-ground military missions together with the Colombian national army".
On Thursday, the United States began to pull its troops out of the Manta air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast, where U.S. operations were set to end Friday. The base was leased to the U.S. air force in 1999 for use in counter-drugs activities in the northwestern area of South America, and left-wing Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has refused to renew the lease.
The Colombian government said on Wednesday that it was about to sign an agreement to expand military cooperation with the U.S., giving the Department of Defence access to three military bases, although analyst of military affairs Alfredo Rangel put the number at five.
The right-wing Uribe administration mentioned the bases at Malambo near the Caribbean coast in the north, Apiay in the south-central part of the country, and Palanquero, the main air base, in central Colombia, for which the U.S. government of Barack Obama already earmarked 46 million dollars for upgrading in 2010.
According to the government, the agreement is not new, but merely a reformed and updated version of the decades-old military cooperation between the two countries, which will be in effect for 10 years, like the Manta base agreement between Washington and Quito that expires in November.
Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world, after Israel and Egypt.
The U.S.-financed multi-billion-dollar Plan Colombia, initially presented as an anti-drug strategy but later described also as a counterinsurgency plan against the 45-year-old FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), has been operating since January 2000.
The U.S. classifies the FARC as a terrorist and drug trafficking organisation.
The Colombian government is trying to get the U.S. to limit its funding cuts for Plan Colombia, which has enabled it to fight the leftist rebels from the air and to expand the deployment of land troops.
Under Plan Colombia, a maximum of 800 military "advisers" and 600 "civilian contractors" may be stationed in this civil war-torn South American country. The Plan's centre of operations is the Tres Esquinas base in the south of the country.
The Uribe and Obama administrations say the updated agreement will not imply an increase in the caps on the number of U.S. military or civilian personnel in Colombia.
Resistance to the agreement on the U.S. use of Colombian bases came not only from the opposition but also from members of the Council of State and pro-Uribe members of Congress, who argued that it could undermine national sovereignty.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
More of this article at http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47714
So, the US is going to increase its presence and further aid the Colombian Government fight the FARC. The sites of the bases listed certainly give the US forces excellent reach within Colombia. Their positioning though, allows reaching further afield.
And doesn't Chavez just know it.
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Chavez criticises US-Colombia plan
Venezuela's president has objected to a decision by neighbouring Colombia to allow more US troops onto its soil.
Hugo Chavez said that Bogota's plan to accommodate more US troops at its air and naval bases was "a threat" to Venezuela.
"They are surrounding Venezuela with military bases," he said in a speech televised late on Monday, adding that relations between Caracas and Bogota would be placed under review.
The criticism comes ahead of a fifth round of talks between the US and Colombia aimed at finalising a security accord.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/07/2009721201557748106.html
The US? Surrounding an enemy with bases, you say? That sounds familiar. Bit like Iran and Russia. Maybe the US should try encircling China as well, just to be safe.
Chavez also had this to say:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Chávez warns Colombia not to allow U.S. base
President Hugo Chávez warned Colombia not to allow a U.S. military base on its border with Venezuela, saying he would regard such an act as "aggression."
Chávez said Wednesday that he would not let the U.S.-backed Colombian government establish an American military base in La Guajira, a region spanning northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.
The Venezuelan leader said that if Colombia allowed the base, his government would revive an old territorial conflict and claim the entire region.
"We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire," Chávez said, referring to the United States in a speech before an auditorium of uniformed soldiers. "Colombia is launching a threat of war at us."[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9017
But the Uribe Government's closeness to Washington is not only causing friction with the Venezuelans to escalate, but is also serving to isolate it with other neighbours in the region:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]At a summit of the leaders of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela in La Paz on Thursday, Bolivian President Evo Morales said any politician who allowed U.S. troops into their country "is a traitor to his country, a traitor to his fatherland."[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47714
To be fair to Uribe though, if he said no to the US request, Plan Colombia's funding could have been seriously dented. Then he wouldn't be able to fund his extensive operations against the FARC, which include air operations, as this recent story demonstrates:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Colombia 'bombs Farc jungle camp'
Colombian forces have bombed a rebel camp in the jungle, killing at least 16 suspected guerrillas, officials say.
The aerial bombing, south of the capital Bogota, was part of a hunt for the military chief of the Farc rebels, Jorge Briceno - known as "Mono Jojoy".
He leads the most powerful division of the left-wing group, and is believed to have some 4,000 men under his command.
Colombian rebels have been under pressure following a military campaign launched by President Alvaro Uribe.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8169086.stm
FARC has not only been duking it out with the Colombian Government, but also with the second largest rebel group in Colombia, the ELN, whose leader recently called for a truce between the two groups:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Colombian rebels seek FARC truce
The leader of Colombia's second-largest rebel group has appealed to the country's largest, the Farc, to end fighting between them.
"We must order a stop to fratricidal war between our two forces," wrote the National Liberation Army (ELN) chief Nicolas "Gambino" Rodriguez.
He sent the message to Alfonso Cano, the new head of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8066191.stm
The call for peace between the two left-wing rebel movements is surely a reaction to gains made by the US backed Uribe Government's forces against both groups.
Chavez, in the meantime, has called for the US and Europeans to stop treating the two groups as terrorist organisations:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Chavez makes Colombia rebel call
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called on the US and European governments to stop treating Colombian left-wing rebel groups as terrorists.
Mr Chavez said the Farc and ELN guerrilla movements were armies with a political project and should be recognised as such.
He was speaking a day after helping manage the FARC's release of two hostages held for more than five years.
The Colombian president swiftly rejected Mr Chavez's idea.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7184485.stm
So we see that Uribe's Government is not only surrounded by nations hostile to it and its closeness the US, but also it's internal military 'successes' are forcing rebels to seriously consider banding together to face the Government, supported politically (and no doubt otherwise) by the aforementioned neighbour states.
So who is Uribe?
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Profile: Alvaro Uribe Velez
Alvaro Uribe Velez is a tough right-winger whose political life has been dominated by the desire to rid the country of the rebels who killed his father 20 years ago.
He won office in 2002, following it in 2006 with a landslide victory that gave him the four more years he said he needed to tackle Colombia's armed groups and drug-traffickers.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3214685.stm
Mr Uribe is credited with having forced groups like the FARC out of the cities and back into the countryside of Colombia, success that has earned him great popularity. So much so, in fact, that recently, this happened:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Colombia Senate backs Uribe vote
Colombia's Senate has overwhelmingly backed a referendum on allowing President Alvaro Uribe to stand for an unprecedented third term in 2010.
A vote in favour would amend the constitution to allow the same right to any president.
Opinion polls indicate that more than 80% of Colombians would currently approve the change.
Opposition leaders say allowing the change would pave the way for the erosion of democracy in Colombia.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8058690.stm
A threat to democracy indeed. Despite being viewed as a hero by many of his political colleagues, Uribe's Government are not quite as righteous as they may seem:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Report of Human Rights Watch : Uribe's government hampers the progress of actions against paras
(Bogota, October 16, 2008) – The administration of President Álvaro Uribe is jeopardizing efforts to secure justice for crimes committed by paramilitaries and their accomplices in Colombia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 140-page report, “Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia,” assesses Colombia’s progress toward investigating and breaking the influence of paramilitaries’ mafia-like networks. It also describes government actions that pose serious obstacles to continued progress. The report is based on interviews with prosecutors and investigators, case files, witness testimony, and other material collected over the course of more than one year of research in Colombia.
“Colombia’s justice institutions have made enormous progress in investigating paramilitaries and their powerful friends,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “But the Uribe administration keeps taking steps that could sabotage these investigations.”
Colombia’s paramilitaries have committed crimes against humanity and other atrocities, including thousands of killings, massacres, threats, enforced disappearances, and forced displacement of civilians. They have amassed enormous wealth and influence, in part through mafia-style alliances with members of the military, politicians, and businesspeople.
In the last two years, Colombia’s Supreme Court has made unprecedented progress in investigating accusations against members of the Colombian Congress of collaborating with the paramilitaries. More than 60 members – nearly all from Uribe’s coalition – have come under investigation. And, in confessions to prosecutors, paramilitary commanders have started to disclose the details of some of their atrocities and to name accomplices in politics and the military.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/human-rightswatch--colombia-government-hampers-justice-efforts/
Uribe's view on human rights groups:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Uribe calls human rights groups, among other things, "spokesmen for terrorism" and "politickers of terrorism." He challenges them to "take off their masks ... and drop this cowardice of hiding their ideas behind human rights." Uribe's speech distinguishes between serious human rights groups and "politickers," but fails to explain how he makes this distinction.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/ngos.htm
So it appears that not only is the Uribe Government is in bed with the with-wing paramilitaries of Colombia, while attacking left wing rebels, but is dangerously dismissive of human rights. The question then is surely thus:
Is the US funding a right-wing government, which could quite possibly turn dictatorial, citing the War on Drugs/Terror, while the real agenda is to instead strategically surround Venezuela, the most outspoken enemy of the US in the region?
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Uribe Agrees US "Access" to Military Bases
BOGOTA, Jul 17 (IPS) - With parliament in recess, the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe confirmed that it would give the United States access to at least three military bases.
"It sounds to me like the U.S. is planning to increase its overall military and paramilitary engagement in the Colombian conflict," said Wilbert van der Zeijden, a researcher on militarism and globalisation at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.
Van der Zeijden, who is also executive coordinator of the Netherlands-based International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases (or No Bases Network), did not rule out the possibility that U.S. forces "plan to engage in on-the-ground military missions together with the Colombian national army".
On Thursday, the United States began to pull its troops out of the Manta air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast, where U.S. operations were set to end Friday. The base was leased to the U.S. air force in 1999 for use in counter-drugs activities in the northwestern area of South America, and left-wing Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has refused to renew the lease.
The Colombian government said on Wednesday that it was about to sign an agreement to expand military cooperation with the U.S., giving the Department of Defence access to three military bases, although analyst of military affairs Alfredo Rangel put the number at five.
The right-wing Uribe administration mentioned the bases at Malambo near the Caribbean coast in the north, Apiay in the south-central part of the country, and Palanquero, the main air base, in central Colombia, for which the U.S. government of Barack Obama already earmarked 46 million dollars for upgrading in 2010.
According to the government, the agreement is not new, but merely a reformed and updated version of the decades-old military cooperation between the two countries, which will be in effect for 10 years, like the Manta base agreement between Washington and Quito that expires in November.
Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world, after Israel and Egypt.
The U.S.-financed multi-billion-dollar Plan Colombia, initially presented as an anti-drug strategy but later described also as a counterinsurgency plan against the 45-year-old FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), has been operating since January 2000.
The U.S. classifies the FARC as a terrorist and drug trafficking organisation.
The Colombian government is trying to get the U.S. to limit its funding cuts for Plan Colombia, which has enabled it to fight the leftist rebels from the air and to expand the deployment of land troops.
Under Plan Colombia, a maximum of 800 military "advisers" and 600 "civilian contractors" may be stationed in this civil war-torn South American country. The Plan's centre of operations is the Tres Esquinas base in the south of the country.
The Uribe and Obama administrations say the updated agreement will not imply an increase in the caps on the number of U.S. military or civilian personnel in Colombia.
Resistance to the agreement on the U.S. use of Colombian bases came not only from the opposition but also from members of the Council of State and pro-Uribe members of Congress, who argued that it could undermine national sovereignty.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
More of this article at http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47714
So, the US is going to increase its presence and further aid the Colombian Government fight the FARC. The sites of the bases listed certainly give the US forces excellent reach within Colombia. Their positioning though, allows reaching further afield.
And doesn't Chavez just know it.
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Chavez criticises US-Colombia plan
Venezuela's president has objected to a decision by neighbouring Colombia to allow more US troops onto its soil.
Hugo Chavez said that Bogota's plan to accommodate more US troops at its air and naval bases was "a threat" to Venezuela.
"They are surrounding Venezuela with military bases," he said in a speech televised late on Monday, adding that relations between Caracas and Bogota would be placed under review.
The criticism comes ahead of a fifth round of talks between the US and Colombia aimed at finalising a security accord.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/07/2009721201557748106.html
The US? Surrounding an enemy with bases, you say? That sounds familiar. Bit like Iran and Russia. Maybe the US should try encircling China as well, just to be safe.
Chavez also had this to say:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Chávez warns Colombia not to allow U.S. base
President Hugo Chávez warned Colombia not to allow a U.S. military base on its border with Venezuela, saying he would regard such an act as "aggression."
Chávez said Wednesday that he would not let the U.S.-backed Colombian government establish an American military base in La Guajira, a region spanning northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.
The Venezuelan leader said that if Colombia allowed the base, his government would revive an old territorial conflict and claim the entire region.
"We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire," Chávez said, referring to the United States in a speech before an auditorium of uniformed soldiers. "Colombia is launching a threat of war at us."[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9017
But the Uribe Government's closeness to Washington is not only causing friction with the Venezuelans to escalate, but is also serving to isolate it with other neighbours in the region:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]At a summit of the leaders of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela in La Paz on Thursday, Bolivian President Evo Morales said any politician who allowed U.S. troops into their country "is a traitor to his country, a traitor to his fatherland."[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47714
To be fair to Uribe though, if he said no to the US request, Plan Colombia's funding could have been seriously dented. Then he wouldn't be able to fund his extensive operations against the FARC, which include air operations, as this recent story demonstrates:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Colombia 'bombs Farc jungle camp'
Colombian forces have bombed a rebel camp in the jungle, killing at least 16 suspected guerrillas, officials say.
The aerial bombing, south of the capital Bogota, was part of a hunt for the military chief of the Farc rebels, Jorge Briceno - known as "Mono Jojoy".
He leads the most powerful division of the left-wing group, and is believed to have some 4,000 men under his command.
Colombian rebels have been under pressure following a military campaign launched by President Alvaro Uribe.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8169086.stm
FARC has not only been duking it out with the Colombian Government, but also with the second largest rebel group in Colombia, the ELN, whose leader recently called for a truce between the two groups:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Colombian rebels seek FARC truce
The leader of Colombia's second-largest rebel group has appealed to the country's largest, the Farc, to end fighting between them.
"We must order a stop to fratricidal war between our two forces," wrote the National Liberation Army (ELN) chief Nicolas "Gambino" Rodriguez.
He sent the message to Alfonso Cano, the new head of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8066191.stm
The call for peace between the two left-wing rebel movements is surely a reaction to gains made by the US backed Uribe Government's forces against both groups.
Chavez, in the meantime, has called for the US and Europeans to stop treating the two groups as terrorist organisations:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Chavez makes Colombia rebel call
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called on the US and European governments to stop treating Colombian left-wing rebel groups as terrorists.
Mr Chavez said the Farc and ELN guerrilla movements were armies with a political project and should be recognised as such.
He was speaking a day after helping manage the FARC's release of two hostages held for more than five years.
The Colombian president swiftly rejected Mr Chavez's idea.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7184485.stm
So we see that Uribe's Government is not only surrounded by nations hostile to it and its closeness the US, but also it's internal military 'successes' are forcing rebels to seriously consider banding together to face the Government, supported politically (and no doubt otherwise) by the aforementioned neighbour states.
So who is Uribe?
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Profile: Alvaro Uribe Velez
Alvaro Uribe Velez is a tough right-winger whose political life has been dominated by the desire to rid the country of the rebels who killed his father 20 years ago.
He won office in 2002, following it in 2006 with a landslide victory that gave him the four more years he said he needed to tackle Colombia's armed groups and drug-traffickers.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3214685.stm
Mr Uribe is credited with having forced groups like the FARC out of the cities and back into the countryside of Colombia, success that has earned him great popularity. So much so, in fact, that recently, this happened:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Colombia Senate backs Uribe vote
Colombia's Senate has overwhelmingly backed a referendum on allowing President Alvaro Uribe to stand for an unprecedented third term in 2010.
A vote in favour would amend the constitution to allow the same right to any president.
Opinion polls indicate that more than 80% of Colombians would currently approve the change.
Opposition leaders say allowing the change would pave the way for the erosion of democracy in Colombia.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8058690.stm
A threat to democracy indeed. Despite being viewed as a hero by many of his political colleagues, Uribe's Government are not quite as righteous as they may seem:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Report of Human Rights Watch : Uribe's government hampers the progress of actions against paras
(Bogota, October 16, 2008) – The administration of President Álvaro Uribe is jeopardizing efforts to secure justice for crimes committed by paramilitaries and their accomplices in Colombia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 140-page report, “Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia,” assesses Colombia’s progress toward investigating and breaking the influence of paramilitaries’ mafia-like networks. It also describes government actions that pose serious obstacles to continued progress. The report is based on interviews with prosecutors and investigators, case files, witness testimony, and other material collected over the course of more than one year of research in Colombia.
“Colombia’s justice institutions have made enormous progress in investigating paramilitaries and their powerful friends,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “But the Uribe administration keeps taking steps that could sabotage these investigations.”
Colombia’s paramilitaries have committed crimes against humanity and other atrocities, including thousands of killings, massacres, threats, enforced disappearances, and forced displacement of civilians. They have amassed enormous wealth and influence, in part through mafia-style alliances with members of the military, politicians, and businesspeople.
In the last two years, Colombia’s Supreme Court has made unprecedented progress in investigating accusations against members of the Colombian Congress of collaborating with the paramilitaries. More than 60 members – nearly all from Uribe’s coalition – have come under investigation. And, in confessions to prosecutors, paramilitary commanders have started to disclose the details of some of their atrocities and to name accomplices in politics and the military.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/human-rightswatch--colombia-government-hampers-justice-efforts/
Uribe's view on human rights groups:
[offsite:2d5dgkfz]Uribe calls human rights groups, among other things, "spokesmen for terrorism" and "politickers of terrorism." He challenges them to "take off their masks ... and drop this cowardice of hiding their ideas behind human rights." Uribe's speech distinguishes between serious human rights groups and "politickers," but fails to explain how he makes this distinction.[/offsite:2d5dgkfz]
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/ngos.htm
So it appears that not only is the Uribe Government is in bed with the with-wing paramilitaries of Colombia, while attacking left wing rebels, but is dangerously dismissive of human rights. The question then is surely thus:
Is the US funding a right-wing government, which could quite possibly turn dictatorial, citing the War on Drugs/Terror, while the real agenda is to instead strategically surround Venezuela, the most outspoken enemy of the US in the region?