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NEWS & LETTERS, June - July 2008
World in View
Latin American Notes
New U.S. military base
Since 1999, the U.S. Military's Southern Command has operated a military base in Manta, ECUADOR, in relation to "narcotrafico," in the Andean region. The base also serves as a way to keep an eye on the political situation in the region from Venezuela to Bolivia. However, recently elected President Rafael Correa has signaled that he will not renew the base lease, which expires next year. There is now much speculation where the U.S. might establish a new base. Peru and Colombia are the leading candidates.
In PERU, the Ayacucho region several hundred miles south of Lima is one possibility. The region has a history of cultivation of coca, and is the area with some of the poorest peasants of the country. It is where a terrible dirty war was carried out between the terrorist group Shining Path and the Peruvian army, with some 70,000 victims, two-thirds of whom where Quechua peasants.
In COLOMBIA, the leading area for a new U.S. military presence is Palanquero air force base in Puerto Salgar, 120 miles north of Bogota. This base was made famous in 1998, when planes taking off from Palanquero bombed a Colombian town, killing 18 innocent civilians. A Colombian court found that a U.S.-made rocket was responsible for the destruction. Subsequently, the U.S. "decertified" this base, making it ineligible to receive U.S. military aid. However, the State Department has recently "recertified" Palanquero, making it eligible for military aid, and the possible establishment of a new U.S. military presence there.
Wherever a new Latin American U.S. military base will be, the U.S. intends to continue to develop a strong military presence in South America.
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Mexico: military incursions
Mexican military and police entered and aggressively threatened the Indigenous autonomous community of La Garrucha, on June 4. The pretext was "to look for the cultivation of marijuana." The result was an intimidation of the population, including a threat to return again in two weeks. The targeting of La Garrucha was no accident. It is one of the communities in resistance with the Zapatistas, the site of one of the region's autonomous Councils of Good Government (Juntas de Buen Gobierno), established as an alternative to the structures of the corrupt, repressive Mexican state.
The provocative action was only the latest in a series of such actions in recent time. In response a caravan of supporters traveled from Mexico City to La Garrucha to lend solidarity. An international campaign was organized to appeal to a number of European Governments to intervene with the Mexican government of Felipe Calderon, to "respect the law" and stop holding the Zapatista communities hostage to threatening actions.
--Eugene Walker
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