The struggle for the hearts, minds and high moral ground in Latin America between Barack Obama of the US and Hugo Chevez of Venezuela has reached an interesting new phase with news the damn yanquis are to set up a new military hub in Alvaro Uribe’s Colombia.
This news is sure to have bourgeoisie Bolsheviks around the world rubbing their beards in apoplexy and angst about rich US imperialists from the north grinding down the poor Latinos from the south to establish hegemony over the western hemisphere.
And 48 years ago they would have been right as John F Kennedy’s Cuban exiles stormed ashore at the Bay of Pigs in a vainglorious attempt to overthrow Cuba’s new socialist government led by Fidel Castro. It failed miserably.
But this time, the North American Yanquis say, the enemy is not the socialist governments led by Hugo Chevez in Venezuela and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, but the narco-terrorist euphemistically known as FARC — more properly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
The deal, which is yet to be signed, gives Obama a maximum 1,400 troops (800 military, 600 civilian contractors) on the ground at three Colombian air force bases and two Colombian naval bases for 10 years.
The US was forced to look for a new centre for regional operations in its war on terror and its war on drugs after Ecuador refused to renew the lease on its military base of Manta. Ecuador’s left-wing president Rafael Correa, a political ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has said he would rather “cut off his arm” than allow the Americans to stay on at Manta.
Military transport planes based at Palanqvero in Colombia will be able to eavesdrop and “interdict” drug traffickers and terrorist operating in half of South America and all of Central America.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, an American ally who has been taking the war up to the FARC since 2002, says the deal is just an extension of the existing Plan Colombia which allows the US to keep 600 surveillance operatives in this cornerstone country of 47 million people: “Reaching agreements with countries like the United States so that …… they help us in this battle against terrorism, against drug trafficking, is most convenient for the country”.
Until 1993 when he was gunned down on his rooftop, Colombia was the home of the Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel that controlled the massive cocaine traffic to the US. Colombia still provides 90 per cent of the world’s high grade cocaine and is a great source of income to FARC and the other paramilitaries ELN and AUC.
Colombian authorities have seized no fewer than 11 narco-submarines so far this year but demand in the US always seems to be supplied.
Uribe said the move was not designed to threaten the neighbouring left-wing states of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia — but he would say that wouldn’t he? There is little doubt the “21st Century Socialism” applecart Comandante Chevez has been driving around Latin America for the last decade has come up against its biggest roadblock.
It is also certain to have major ramifications for Chevez’s plans to get Obama to reinstall his good friend Mel Zeyala to his former throne in Honduras where the US also has a military base.
The guy’s surname is Chavez (strictly speaking Chávez with an accent).
When he publicly denounced president Bush as a war criminal he became one of my anti-gringo anti-imperialist heroes. Subsequently I was dissilusioned when I saw bits of a Venezuelan television programme (which apparently is run regularly) in which Hugo Chavez bignoted himself by berating his ministers. The style of criticism was reminiscent of Mao’s cultural revolution.
Sadly Hugo Chavez is nothing but a bully. A pity, because intelligent dignified criticism of U.S. policies in relation to Latin America wouldn’t go astray
Who is Mr Chevez, and who is Terry Maher (or is it Meher?) that he cannot get this basic fact right? And what about the fact that Colombia is the world’s most dangerous place to be a trade unionist? Does Terry Meher not give a fat rat’s about this either? Following the recent meeting between President Obama and Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe to discuss security, development and trade Obama stated that Colombia must cooperate with the U.S. in “improving the rights of the trade unions and the efforts to protect union leaders.” Obviously Terry Meher is more concerned to agitate against “bourgeoisie Bolsheviks” than report on the facts. Who pays Terry Meher and why does Crikey print this rubbish?
I didn’t mind Terry’s article for what it said, but there was a lot that he didn’t say (but that’s what spin doctors do – wish they would pay me to do that … )
– and he does seem to have a problem with bearded men …
Leaving that aside … Uribe was (once upon a time) on the top thirty of the DEA list of drug dealers, along with a few dozen other, current, Colombian politicians.
Venezuela has halved the source of drug trafficking from that country, since the Chavez government pissed off the DEA agents within Venezuela.
Colombian paramilitary forces have gone into Venezuela, over the border with Columbia to support regional landowners in their attempts to backtrack, or over rule the Venezuelan goverment’s attempts to introduce basic reforms for humane conditions for peasant workers, and some efforts at land reform. This has been in conjunction with attempts by governors of regional states to seek ‘autonomy’ from the central government of Venezuela – similar to similar attempts and actions in Bolivia last year.
The so called ‘war on terror’ and ‘war on drugs’ is just another substitution (in discourse analysis) for ‘reds under the beds’. Clinton ( I think ) was forced to shut down the “School of Americas” training school for its’ success in churning out an assembly line of dictators, death squads, and torturers over thirty or fourty years. I am not exaggerating here.
It has been ‘replaced’ by a string of police and military training colleges all through the isthmus and beyond. There have been efforts to let observers see the curriculum of the ‘Police training college’ in El Salvador, and they have been refused. As Humpty Dumpty said … “as a master, words mean what I want them to mean”. SOA (School of Americas) has been shut down, but long live the network of Anti-terrorist, anti-drug training stations that the US has set up as a similar training network. Wouldn’t mind, if they let outside observers get a geezer at the curriculum and what they are teaching, but they wouldn’t let me, or anyone else do that. Could be excused for wondering why.
So let’s take a second look at the DEA’s presence in Colombia. Is it ‘all good’? Should the FARC be loaded with all the blame for the cocaine traffic in the US? Should we be forgetting the OllieGate, illegal contra funded war with cocaine money of the late 90s?
Should, or should we not, accommodate an historical perspective without being labelled (and possibly decomissioned) as ‘weird left’ for asking these questions. I wouldn’t mind being paid for the work I do, but obviously I don’t have the talents of Terry.
oops – typo
Should we be forgetting the OllieGate, illegal contra funded war with cocaine money of the late 90s?
that should be ‘late 80s’
and get a geezer at Eva Golinger’s latest post !
http://links.org.au/node/1147
End note: …
The headline is not going to help Obama ‘outflank’ anyone. He’s in there – he doesn’t need a cheersquad anymore. He needs intelligent critics.
Saludos
Wf
Put CIA + Drugs into your search engine, and then spend a few hours doing some interesting reading. The US presence in Latin America over the last 40? years has never done anything for the people in the region. History has told us this to be the case. I don’t blame Hugo Chavez for his dislike/ hatred of the US. They’ve either invaded or interfered with almost 50 countries since the end of WW2. IF Hugo Chavez did what the US wanted, what his predecessors did, he’d be a mate! His people prefer his brand of politics to the US – they’ve only voted that way at least 10 times! His mates in neighbouring countries are sick of US interference too! I agree with them!