Shaking Up South America

---

Hola Amigos!

This is something different today, but we think you'll find it interesting—and relevant. It's Jack’s translation of excerpts (with dictionario in hand) from a speech by Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, printed in the Loja newspaper, "La Hora." Jack included his comments and summary to give the speech a context.

Correa's Speech at UNASUR

Rafael Correa, in addition to being President of Ecuador, is the pro tempore leader of UNASUR, the Union of South American States which concerns itself with issues of importance to all of South America.

On August 29th, nine presidents of South American countries met in Bariloche, Argentina, in a highly-contentious meeting where Latin tempers flared. (The two women present — Michele Bachelet, President of Chile, and Cristina Fernandez, President of Argentina —cooled things off when they joked that it must be the testosterona).

The hot-button issue was the agreement between Columbia and the United States to allow seven U.S. military bases into Columbia, ostensibly to aid in control of narco trafficking.

Concerned about the strengthened presence of the United States in South America, UNASUR created an agreement of the parties for the common defense. After the bill passed, Correa said, "This is a very important step forward for the region, but there is no guarantee that anyone can verify that these bases will be used for their intended purposes or not."

"Ecuador had a United States military base in Ecuador, in Manta. And we were deceived. There is no way to control what the United States does in the bases that are in Columbia. Who will control the United States? It is not possible to verify if an aircraft that operates from a base is being used to observe the movement of narco traffickers or (is being used) to interfere in the communications or the radars of other counties of the regions. We have had that experience in Ecuador, and we have no illusions with that."

UNASUR passed a resolution that the copies of the treaty between the United States and Columbia should be distributed to member states in order to "demonstrate transparency." However, diplomatic experts conceded that the resolution would be very difficult to enforce.

My guess is that there's not a lot of press coverage in the western half of the northern hemisphere about the U.S. bases in Columbia. It's probably not seen as a big deal. But let me tell you, it's a big deal in South America. The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, "has insisted in a form emphatic" that Columbia guarantee "the forces are not utilized for operations outside of Columbia."The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, left the conference and flew to Russia where he met with his "hermanos," Demetri Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, to discuss a bilateral strategic alliance and "to negotiate the purchase of anti-aircraft weapons."

The installation of U.S. bases in Columbia has all the earmarks of creating a near term future theater of operations for U.S. military forces.

---

Photos

Correa Election Poster
"You decide between the dark past or this beautiful revolution in democracy.
Until victory always, Rafael"