Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean | Analysis

SOUTH AMERICA: US Military Presence, the Issue No One Talks About

Analysis by Carlos Tautz

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 20 2006 (IPS) - In the debate on regional integration in South America, the question of militarisation is not even mentioned.

Among the issues that have been ignored is the occupation of Haiti by United Nations peacekeeping forces under the military leadership of Brazil and the political leadership of Chile. Another is the U.S. armed presence, in the form of troops as well as private military contractors, in 10 out of the 12 countries of South America (the exceptions are Brazil and Venezuela).

Despite the importance of these issues, governments in the region either barely mention them or ignore them altogether.

That continues to be the case even though leftist or centre-left presidents have been elected in a number of countries, ranging from Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez in late 1998 to Ecuadorian president-elect Rafael Correa last month.

Correa, who takes office in January, has already announced that Ecuador will not renew the agreement leasing the air base at the port city of Manta in western Ecuador to Washington when it expires in 2009.

In the 1980s and 1990s, when free-market policies were the norm in this region, the United States accentuated its traditional strategy of combining finance and diplomacy with the expansion of military might.

While Washington uses its influence in financial institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to press countries to reduce the size of their state apparatus in exchange for loans, it has taken advantage of its proximity with the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean – with the exception of Cuba – to strengthen its military presence in the region.

But the subject is not even discussed in regional forums and is far from a priority in debates on integration.

The near-invisibility of these problems was clear during the second South American Community of Nations summit held Dec. 8-9 in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

No president so much as mentioned these questions, which were also completely absent from the leaders’ final declaration.

Even the Social Summit for the Integration of the Peoples, organised by non-governmental organisations and social movements parallel to the presidents’ meeting, neglected to refer to these issues in the main body of its statement, relegating them to a secondary document.

“I understand the logic behind the position taken by Brazil, although I don’t agree with it,” said economist Sandra Quintela with Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone, an organisation based in Rio de Janeiro. “Brazil neither confronts the United States in its foreign policy nor houses foreign bases on its territory. That’s why the issue is not addressed.”

Quintela forms part of an international campaign calling for the withdrawal of the Brazilian-led multinational peacekeeping force from Haiti, and for the cancellation of Haiti’s foreign debt.

But on the other hand, “I don’t understand why (Bolivian President Evo) Morales and Chávez don’t touch on the issue,” she added.

Professor Maria Regina Lima, at the Rio de Janeiro University Research Institute, agreed that “it would be very touchy for Brazil to tackle the question of the U.S. military presence, as long as it is not directly affected.”

But the situation is different when it comes to Haiti, where Brazil has 1,200 troops and leads the 6,700-member U.N. stabilisation mission (MINUSTAH).

The mission was deployed there in June 2004, a few months after constitutional president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a coup in which a French-U.S. commando reportedly took part.

MINUSTAH’s mandate expires on Jun. 30, 2007, but the U.N. could decide in February to extend it beyond that.

“Only two of the 20 members of the MINUSTAH high command are South Americans. The rest are from the United States, France, Italy and Canada,” said activist Camille Chalmers of the Haitian Platform for Alternative Development (PAPDA), based in Port-au-Prince.

“The United States controls the military intelligence and does not even share its information with the mission’s general commander,” she said.

So why does Brazil insist on keeping what Argentine writer and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel refers to as “outsourced U.S. intervention” in the Caribbean, despite the political damages it has sustained in doing so?

“If we weren’t there, things would be even worse,” says diplomat Ant- nio Patriota, recently named as Brazil’s ambassador to the United States.

“Brazil’s agenda for the continent essentially has an economic focus. That’s why it doesn’t touch on the question of militarisation,” said activist Maria Luisa Mendonça, with the Brazilian Social Network for Justice and Human Rights.

With respect to the presence of U.S. bases or troops in South America, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry sees that as an internal question of each country.

And diplomat Joel Sampaio pointed out that “There is only one actual military base, Manta.”

Brazil’s Army Intelligence Centre (CIE) estimates that “nearly 6,300 members of the U.S. military, without counting private security personnel contracted by the U.S. government, were deployed or carried out operations in the Amazon jungle region in 2001 and 2002,” reported the Brazilian government’s news agency.

According to the CIE, the United States maintains a military presence in various shapes and forms at 23 different spots in South America, including anti-drug patrols in international waters, an unknown number of officers, radars and landing strips. Eight of these are in Peru and six in Colombia.

Colombia’s civil war has dragged on for nearly half a century, involving two leftist rebel groups, ultra-right paramilitary militias involved in a controversial demobilisation process, and the army, which has received billions of dollars in U.S. military aid under the Plan Colombia anti-drug and counterinsurgency strategy. There are also a large number of U.S. officers, troops and military contractors in Colombia.

Under the Brazilian administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003), Washington tried to install a military base in the city of Alcântara in the northeastern state of Maranhão, where Brazil’s satellite launch base is located, considered a near-ideal launch site because of its proximity to the equator.

But due to the outpouring of public opposition, the agreement between the two countries for building the base was never signed.

Economy Professor Ana Esther Ceceña at the Autonomous National University of Mexico said the U.S. military is present in areas abundant in natural resources like water, oil and natural gas, and biodiversity.

A clear overlap was found in a comparison by IPS of maps showing the distribution of natural resources in the region, U.S. military presence, and the projects entailed in the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) initiative, which is financed and coordinated by the IDB.

IIRSA, which includes more than 300 projects for waterways, highways and hydropower plants in 12 countries, mainly in the Amazon jungle region, is billed as “the blueprint for electrical and transportation infrastructure” in South America.