U.S. seeks to increase its military
presence in Latin America

LACIS denounces “military-naval maneuvers diplomacy”

The increase in U.S. military activities in Latin America is the result of Latin American countries exercising their national sovereignty. This disturbs the geopolitical and geostrategical strategists in Washington who wish to gradually reestablish their lost hegemony in the entire hemisphere, despite the risk of provoking a dangerous increase in sociopolitical tensions south of the Rio Grande.
This is the conclusion of an analysis made by Mexican and Latin American specialists brought together by the Latin American Circle for International Studies (LACIS), a non-governmental organization dedicated to research, analysis and reflection, based out of Mexico City.
The specialists brought together by the LACIS emphasize that Latin American public opinion has, to a large extent, been unaware of the package of military operations included in the Partnership of the Americas program, which includes the recently concluded Unitas 2008 military-naval maneuvers in the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as another series of exercises in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
The U.S. government, the specialists say, have placed the 4th Fleet on permanent alert as of July 1. This fleet’s operations were re-launched just this year as part of the Southern Command forces, within a package of emergency measures designed to reestablish Washington’s political control over Latin America.
With this in mind, the strategists in the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon have not found no better solution at hand than dusting off the tactics of the Cold War that failed at the time and which sparked justified indignation among the peoples of Latin America and the nationalist governments of the region.
These types of military-naval maneuvers, which in 2008 officially lasted from April to October, included almost 60 days of participation by the nuclear--powered ballistic missile submarine USS George Washington, whose presence in Latin American waters violates the spirit and the letter of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (the Treaty of Tlatelolco).
The United States is one of the signatory countries to Protocols I and II of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, through which it formally committed itself to respect the military de-nuclearization of Latin America, not only in terms of the territories of the countries of the region, but also in any possessions, permanent or temporary (such as Guantánamo) that it might have, de jure or de facto, in the geographical field of the treaty’s application. Nevertheless, Washington has not had the slightest hesitation in introducing nuclear weapons in Latin American waters of the Atlantic and Pacific.
According to the specialists brought together by the LACIS, the main reason for this aggressive policy by the United States can be found in the increasingly firm decision of the Latin American countries to act in accordance with their own interests and to fully exercise their own sovereignty, taking their distance from the hegemonic policy guidelines that Washington has traditionally employed in the region.
The fact that the nations of Latin America are seeking and implementing their own integration programs and freely choosing the most appropriate partners in the international community to develop a mutually beneficial collaboration in different fields -political, economic, technological, and cultural- has led to an extreme reaction in the U.S. power structure.
If to this we add the sovereign decision adopted by some of these countries -particularly Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela and to a lesser extent, Argentina— to become modernized nations and to increase their military power, we can understand that the White House is particularly concerned over an independent approach on the part of these nations that accelerates the gradual loss of U.S. influence in the region and the impunity with which the major consortia of that country have taken advantage of and benefitted from the opening of the Latin American economies.
In fact, the specialists surveyed by the LACIS point out that the United States has been gradually left without reliable, unconditional allies. Today Washington can only count on Colombia and Peru, countries that still consider their relationship with the White House to be an absolute priority, even though at the same time they do not display a true disposition to support the North Americans in a really committed way, especially in terms of possible military interventions.
Recently, high-level Colombian and Peruvians officials reacted with very little enthusiasm to the proposal to transfer the U.S. American military air base that is currently located at Manta, Ecuador to their respective countries.
One of the consequences of this new situation, the specialists consulted by the LACIS conclude, is Washington’s decision to use all the resources within its command to increase its influence and military presence in Panama.
With this in mind, the LACIS calls on the peoples and governments of Latin America to present a united front in response to the new onslaught of a hegemonic policy that is historically condemned to failure.