The Drugs Trade and Imperial Strategy (2)

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A Contentious Agreement

Translated from the Spanish from the Sept 2009 edition of El Mundo Diplomatico

At the end of August 2009, Colombia was on the point of signing a highly contentious agreement with the United States; finalised on the 14 of this month, the agreement allows US troops to use 7 military bases spread throughout the territory of Colombia for a period of 14 years. Including the base of Tres Esquinas in Cagueta (the seat of the Joint Intelligence Committe), the number of installations which the United States effectively controls rises to 8. The bases in question, in additionl to Tres Esquinas, are Palanquero (in the centre of the country); Apiay and Malambro (all three belonging to the air force), Bahai de Malaga (in the Pacific between Ecuador and Panama) and Bolivar de Cartagena in the Atlantic (both of which are naval bases); and also the infantry bases of Larandia and Tolemaida. In reality, the military bases of Apiay and Larandia have already been used by the US military.

The stated objective of the agreement is the deepening of the struggle against drugs traffickers and terrorists, allegedly in the interior of Colombia, and thereby compensating for the setbacks of which befell Plan Colombia on the subject of spraying illicit crops.

Despite the repeated assertions of the Colombian government that they have not surrended their sovereignty; that the security guards inside the bases will be decided jointly between the two countries and that the command of the bases will be permanently in the hands of the Colombians, the region has reacted with alarm at the announcement. The suspicion exists that some of these bases will be used for operations outside Colombian territory, and on these matters Colombia will not offer the slightest interference.

Ecuador has already suffered a military incursion on behalf of Colombia in 2008, and according to some intelligence reports, this originated in the base at Tres Esquinas. During the incursion, the central command advanced as far as Maita in Ecuador. The country´s president, Rafael Correa, has not renewed his permission for the US to use this base which was granted last year.

That act of hostility provoked the diplomatic rupture between the two countries. President Correa has accused Colombia of having received financing from the guerrilla group, Armed Forces for Revolution in Colombia (FARC) in their election campaign. This accusation was based upon a video tape of doubtful origin.

On this occasion, the Venezuela of Hugo Chavez has remained silent on the accusations in respect of armaments alleged provided to FARC, based upon the discovery of rocket launchers sold by Sweden to the government of Venezuela in the 1980s, when Chavez was still unknown. Just as much as Ecuador, however, Venezuela perceives the presence of the US military in the region as a threat. The hostile climate which is based upon widespread accusations, suspicion and uncertainty has done no more than confirm tis perception.

For its part, Brasil, whose basis for objection to the plan is the potential penetration into the Amazon region by a foreign power, could see its worst fears realised. One of the Colombian bases, that of Palanquero, confirms these main concerns. In accordance with a planning document of the Command for Airborne Manouevres (AMC), the South Command of the United States will carry out its operations from Palanquero and from there has effective control over almost half the continent. Palanquero has the C-17 at its disposal, an aircraft which can cover the whole area without the necessity of refueling. Only Cape Horn remains out of the range of this sector.

Security Reinforced

At the third general meeting of the heads of state of the South American Union (UNASUR), which was held in Quito on 10 August 2009, there was much to discuss, though the Colombian president Alvaro Uribe prefered to carry out a tour of the seven countries of the region and try and explain the scope of the bilateral agreement with United States. In spite of that absence and the order not to raise the issue due to a lack of an agreed position berween the chiefs of state, the matter could not be avoided.

Refusing to toe the line in his usual style, Hugo Chavez brought the matter up for discussion, and with his declaration that ´the winds of war were blowing´, forced the subject onto the agenda at the meeting which took place on 28 August in Bariloche, Argentina, while this newspaper was going to print. The meeting was held with the objecive of obtaining guarantees from Uribe and diffusing a climate which was becoming more and more tense every time. brasil. for its part, proposed a meeting between UNASUR and president Obama directly.

Only two voices were raised in Colombia´s favour; one from within UNASUR, that of the Peruvian president Alan Garcia, who shares with Uribe the vision of security ´made in the USA´ and who has granted permission to the United States for its Fourth Fleet to berth in two of Peru´s ports; those of Callao and Salaverry, 600km to the north of Lima.

From outside UNASUR, the support for Uribe came from the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon. In a visit to Bogota in August, Calderon backed Uribe´s decision with respect to the bases and established with the Colombian president the terms of an alliance between the two countries.

On 13 August 2009, he also announced the creation of ´a high level group concerned with security to put a stop to transnational organised crime´, and of an agreement under which 11,000 agents of the Mexican federal police would be stationed in Colombia in order to combat the drug traffickers and to form anti-hijacking squads.

´Initiative Merida´, the bases in Colombia, the Fourth Fleet stationed in Peru, these are not isolated projects but part of an architecture of security which is in accordance with what Thomas Sharman, ex secretary of state for Affairs of the Western Hemisphere during the Bush administration, called a new paradigm of cooperation in matters of regional security. This is comprised of integrated programmes which go beyond regional areas, which create an interconnected system and constitute an armoured corridor of diverse purposes, stretching from the Andres to the southwest border of the United States, with projections into the whole continent.

An architecture concerned to provide security against drug trafficking, organised crime, the gangs of Central America, insurrection and terrorism, which threaten democracy and governability. The agreement is sold, but the concrete results of the chosen methods have been until now unrewarding.

Taking historical antecedents into account, one must not forget the opinion that this architecture also comprises the military arm of a hegemonical design for the purpose of extending markets, the control of territories, populations and resources; and do not forget too that security is never considered in terms of social justice. An architecture which reinforces and develops this is also required, until the continent is also covered by political projects of a progressive character: new forms of government, new leaders, new social participants.

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