By Carlos Aznarez on August 24, 2017
Like in the old days when Latin America was plagued with military dictatorships and armies under the co ordination and design of Plan Condor, today new rightist currents in the continent are generating disturbing scenarios reminiscent of that past. In all of them, the justifications are almost the same as those during the 70s and 80s – drug trafficking, terrorism and transnational felonies, to which today we would add cyber defense. Behind these eye-catching screens and the passing of informative secrets, what it is not being said is that to execute the economic and social policies of neoliberalism, in the in the past, as well as the present, it is necessary to sharpen the knives of internal repression, and for that there is nothing better than the exchange of intelligence between armies and to consult on new methods and techniques.
This is exactly what happened in Perú this week in the framework of the government of Pedro Pablo Kuzinsky which is constantly encouraging destabilizing attacks against Venezuela. Kuzinsky was able to host a 2 day conference featuring the new Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, Kurt W. Tidd, with the participation of the Defense Ministers and military chiefs of Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile Colombia and of course the United States
All of them analyzed not just the advancement of drug trafficking in the region, but the military agenda that also included what they defined as the “severe Venezuelan crisis”, the uncertain Colombian peace process, the actions of the Paraguayan guerrilla movement EPP and the possible situations that may arise from popular uprisings due to the devastating effects of the IMF economic schemes. In their vague press communications the spokesmen for the group also gave lip service to the need for “humanitarian help” for populations of low resources. This is was a smoke screen that almost no one could believe.
It is no coincidence that this VII South American Defense Conference, with a strong Yankee presence, was organized just a few days after President Donald Trump threatened armed intervention in Bolivarian Venezuela and warned that the armies of the US are “everywhere in the whole world”.
One detail missing in the recent tour of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence through several countries of Latin America was why so much emphasis on calling on other nations to cut relations with North Korea, another of Washington’s unrepentant enemies. The reason was now explained in Lima by Admiral Tidd as a “logic of common sense” an aspect of the countries that are part of the “free world” – using that old euphemism from the Cold War period. There is no doubt that in the hallways of the Southern Command the names of Nicolás Maduro and Kim Jong Un are lumped together as “enemies to defeat”. This is something that is already being used as an objective or chant at the American boot camps in Colombia and in Perú.
Just as everything has to do with everything, the Lima reunion laid the groundwork for the “gigantic” (as they are called by those who summon them) military maneuvers which are being prepared for November in the contiguous frontier of Brazil, Perú and Colombia. The codename for these exercises is “America United Operation”, and there, besides the American and Brazilian officials, officials from the neighboring countries will join in an active capacity of observers.
As we can see, it was not that long ago when an important part of the Brazilian army was vehemently against any Yankee intervention in the Amazonian zone, considered by the Pentagon as an “International Zone”. Even on the Brazilian radios of the frontier the programs with patriotic phrases were adverse to that possible intervention were common. Let’s not even mention the complaints of Bush and Obama on the weapon purchases that Brazil made with France and Sweden, ignoring the offers made by Washington.
Now everything has changed. Temer and the most obsequious right rules with clear plans of imperial expansion, and this is why facilities are being granted and opened up so that the military confluence with the U.S. is something that seems more than natural. Such is the impunity that will be granted to the “visitors” who commits a crime against the local population and in turn will be exempted from any punishment in the host country. And even worse the entrance of troops will not be discussed in any local or national parliament. In another example of handing away a country’s sovereignty, a general of the US Southern Command, Clarence Chinn, was decorated by his Brazilian counterparts with the title of Military Commander of the Amazon.
The November military maneuvers will last for 10 days and to help facilitate them a temporary international military base will be established in Tabatinga, located in the frontier of the three participating Latin American countries. Large contingents of marines will arrive that will add up to hundreds of heavily armed soldiers that will be deployed in armored vehicles, tanks and armed helicopters.
Tabatinga is located inside the limits of the Colombian city of Leticia and the Peruvian city of Santa Rosa, where for months now representatives of the four armies have been working on installation plans under the auspices of the Southern Command. At the area personnel from the military Attaché of the United States Embassy in Brazil have been seen along with a group of Colombian and Argentinean military personnel that will be taking part in this bellicose adventure.
As it usually happens in these types of maneuvers a lot of “collateral business” will be taking place during the down time of the training much of which will be at the expense of humble young women from nearby cities.
It is not a minor detail that these future war activities will happen in a moment in which all of the Brazilian social and popular movements are shaking the country against the regressive measures of the government and also in the middle of a pre electoral offensive by former president Lula, who is visualized as the only card of salvation in the struggle against the right at this time.
Before this palpable evidence on how the North American exterior military policy is expanding into the continent, the Lima meeting provided not just a table to plan the military exercises but also a blue print for entrenchment for regional control. Importantly it is also a way to come up with a scheme and apparatus to put down mass uprisings that are percolating in the big Brazilian cities.
These developments do not seem so different from the plan applied 35 years ago.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano