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UNASUR SUMMIT IN BARILOCHE
A
sharp retort to U.S. military interference
Nidia Diaz
• IN the face of more than a few predictions that
the UNASUR Summit of Heads of State in the Argentine
city of Bariloche would be a failure, given the
composition of its leadership and their distinct
political and ideological differences, the dignity
of America came to the fore, united more by the
defense of its sovereignty and the weight of history
than divided by those differences.
The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
categorically rejected the installation of U.S.
bases on Colombian territory or the use of these
bases by American troops, as President Alvaro Uribe
insists, and demanded to see a copy of the agreement
on the issue signed by the governments of Colombia
and the United States.
The session on August 28 was an intense one. There
was nothing left to say and even those who attempted
not to arouse the anger of the empire or the enmity
of their principal ally in the region signed a final
document that reaffirms: "The presence of foreign
military forces with their linked means and
resources and their own objectives cannot be allowed
to threaten the sovereignty and integrity of any
South American nation and, in consequence, the peace
of the region."
At the same time, the member countries expressed
their firm decision to make South America a region
of peace, while Points 4 and 5 instruct "the South
American Defense Council to analyze the text on
South American strategy in the U.S. Aerial Mobility
Command’s White Paper – presented by President Hugo
Chávez as evidence of yanki strategy in the
region – and undertake a verification of the border
situation for a report to be taken to the Council of
State Heads of Government, in order that it can
consider courses of action to be followed."
The Summit also gave the green light to the South
American Council against drug trafficking to
urgently draw up its statutes and an action plan
aimed at defining a regional strategy against that
scourge and to fortify cooperation among the
specialized agencies within the member countries.
The idea is to eliminate an extra-regional presence
in combating drugs, which has become a pretext for
outside military interference.
President Cristina Fernández, hostess of the
Bariloche meeting, excelled in her exposition of the
relevant issues, such as that of the need to
establish a doctrine of common defense respected by
its 12 members and to safeguard the unity of UNASUR.
In that context, she stated that if the installation
of foreign power bases is "a matter of national
sovereignty" – as Colombia is stating – "that would
have to be the same for everyone, because there
cannot be one sovereignty that has primacy over the
rest and which imposes conditions on the rest, or
that one of the countries of which we form part
might feel as an aggression."
In order to support her argument she recalled the
issue of the Malvinas Islands and "what the
installation of military bases of an
extra-continental power, precisely the one that
broke the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal
Assistance in relation to regional defense, has
signified for Argentina."
"President Uribe, I believe that the first thing is
to read the agreement on the military bases, in
precise and concrete terms; we are not talking of
religious or philosophical concepts in relation to
the bases; we are talking about verifying aircraft,
weapons, whether they are to combat guerillas or to
combat drug trafficking," she stated.
"If bases are installed in a neighboring country I,
at least, would feel unsafe. We need to conciliate
your wish as president to draw up your project of
cooperation with the USA but we have to ensure that
that agreement is not going to affect the security
and institutionality of your neighboring countries,"
she noted.
For his part, the leader of the Bolivarian
Revolution, Hugo Chávez, read out the document
referred to by the Argentine president and which
contains Pentagon guidelines related to its
geopolitical and military strategy. The Venezuelan
president agreed with his counterpart Rafael Correa
on the need for Uribe to present the "documents in
its entirety" or at least that he circulate a
synopsis in order to emerge the many doubts and
unknowns of Venezuela, at least.
He added, to quote just one example, that the U.S.
global strategy of domination includes the Colombian
Palanquero base as one of the objectives for troop
mobilizations. From there, Chávez explained, almost
half the continent can be covered by a C-17, a heavy
military transport plane, and that that should be
sufficient for the strategy of aerial mobility on
the South American subcontinent.
Referring to the U.S. document he noted that it
refers to "mobility for warfare. In Honduras,
President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped and forced to
board a plane at gunpoint and, before flying to
Costa Rica, it landed on a military base that the
United States has in the close vicinity of
Tegucigalpa.
"That is what it’s all about, the utilization of
those bases for interference in and subversion of
South American sovereignty."
Speaking in his capacity as rotating president of
UNASUR, President Rafael Correa referred to the U.S.
text read out by Chávez as evidence of the fact that
the battle against drug trafficking was merely a
pretext of the empire. He noted, "We cannot accept
that a document like that treats us like a backyard"
and, as a consequence, he proposed that the bloc’s
Defense Council should assess it and advocated a
meeting with the U.S. president.
The Ecuadorian leader used many arguments to
dismantle the Colombian-U.S. fallacy of the need to
expand the yanki military presence in order
to combat drug trafficking.
Correa recalled that 51% of the cocaine produced in
the region comes from Colombia where, moreover, 32%
of Colombian coca cultivation is sown on close to
92,000 hectares. Those cultivations, he added, are
basically concentrated in the south of that country,
where the presence of Colombian soldiers is
virtually nil. Ecuador has directed 10,000 soldiers
to protect the border with Colombia, while this
country has barely 3,000 troops there. "So,
President Uribe, it is Colombia’s responsibility,
not that of neighboring countries, don’t look for
enemies where there are none."
Correa noted that drug traffickers are individuals
who traffic in narcotics and not governments that "we
do not like or which do not agree with your
interests."
In that context he observed that in that alleged
battle, the U.S. troops are to have disproportionate
resources and this "greatly trespasses on Colombian
sovereignty and affects stability and peace in the
region."
Referring to the effectiveness of the war on drug
trafficking, the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio
Lula, recalled that Colombia and the United States
have maintained cooperation in this context since
1952 and that the problem, far from being solved, is
increasing. "I think that it should be a time to
rethink whether that cooperation should be
maintained."
Arguments were there in abundance at the Bariloche
dialogue. In response to each and every one of them,
President Alvaro Uribe came up with evasions, went
onto the defensive and tried uselessly to drive
wedges among the leaders in order to create mistrust.
That mistrust which President Evo Morales warned of
in his words when, with dazzling clarity, he
recalled for those present that the history of the
United States in its relations with Latin America
has been one of fomenting mistrust and disunity. "They
do not want us united. The time has come to stop
being the instruments of division. As long as there
is a presence of foreign bases in South America, it
will be difficult to be able to think of peace."
There is no doubt that the UNASUR Summit in
Bariloche has demonstrated to the world the capacity
of a new kind of political leadership – exceptions
apart – made evident by their high degree of
political maturity and their conviction that, faced
with foreign interference, there are more than
enough reasons for uniting in the defense of
sovereignty, territorial integrity and the future of
their peoples.
Hopefully the decisions adopted in Bariloche have
fatally wounded U.S. military pretensions like that
day, not so long ago, of the interment in Mar del
Plata of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas),
the other expression of the neocolonialism that the
empire is refusing to renounce in order to maintain
the subjection of this important and strategic
region of the world. •
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