OscailtNew Latin American century (part 3): US "Forward Operating Locations", Domination, Robots & fibs.This third part of my current series on Latin America will detail the current bases operated in Latin America and takes at least part of its title from a wonderful article published this afternoon by Fidel Castro on the subject of the new push by USA to open up more bases or what it terms "forward operating locations". Fidel writes a letter to Granma the official newspaper of the Cuban revolution named after the boat which left Mexico in 1956 carrying himself, his little brother Raul, the immortal Che and the much overlooked anarchist Camilo Cienfuegos to start a revolution. The rest is history, so they say. Courtously the editorial folk at Granma print Fidel's letter every week regardless of its quality but somehow this afternoon's started a "buzz" in Latin American solidarity and analyst circles worldwide for its wonderful byline & prediction : "US global domination and robots by 2020". Here follows a historical over-view, summary of Fidel's article & a guide to the current US bases in South America.
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2009-08-20T23:54:00+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=93652http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifAppendix (1) : Paraguay's controversial "civilian airport, not base not FOL" very like Shannon.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93652#comment2580202009-08-20T23:54:00+00:00iosafI forgot to include the southern most FOL operated by SOUTHCOM which is in Parag...I forgot to include the southern most FOL operated by SOUTHCOM which is in Paraguay. In May 2005 the USA signed a deal with Paraguay to creat a new base at Mariscal Estigarribia where the Paraguayan "Dr. Luis Maria Argaña International Airport" is located. Of course it's not a <em> base </em> it's not even designated as a<em>"FOL". </em><br />
<br />
According to this US publication at the time <a href="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2991" title="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2991">http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2991</a>"Hundreds of US military personnel are rotated though Paraguay each year, though the military has stated that the total number in the country will not exceed 10-20 at any time". It all began with the arrival of 400 US troops in July 2005, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted US troops diplomatic immunity.<br />
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The opening of this "FOL" ought remind older Irish readers of the construction of Knock airport and all Irish readers of the way Shannon has turned into a "FOL".<br />
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from wikipedia whose English pages are woefully poor research material on US bases:<br />
<br />
According to the Clarín Argentinian newspaper, Mariscal Estigarribia would be a strategic location for a military base because of its proximity to the Triple Frontera between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina; the Guarani aquifer; and Bolivia (less than 200km_ at a time when "Washington's magnifying glass goes on the Altiplano and points toward Venezuelan Hugo Chávez—the regional demon according to Bush's administration—as the instigator of the instability in the region".<small><a href="http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/zona/2005/09/11/z-03615.htm" title="http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/zona/2005/09/11/z-03615.htm">http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/zona/2005/09/11/z-036...5.htm</a></small><br />
<br />
The US and Paraguayan governments deny that the US military is establishing base at Mariscal Estigarribia.The US government said "...limited, short-term deployments of U.S. military personnel are scheduled to take place for a series of joint exercises with the Paraguayan military between July 2005 and December 2006. Most personnel deployed will not remain in Paraguay for more than 45 days." <small> that was from the US Stat department of 2006, that depatrment is now in Hilary's paws - <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2006/Jan/12-623470.html" title="http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2006/Jan/12-623470.html">http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2006/Jan/12-62347....html</a> </small><br />
<strong><br />
Now it gets interesting when one considers the history and neutrality issues of the wikipedia entry in English about this controversial place.<br />
</strong><br />
"A Brazilian weekly news magazine [<em> right wing pro US </em>] , CartaCapital, published an investigative article on <strong>April 25th, 2008</strong>, that dismisses what it calls a conspiracy theory about the base. A reporter actually visited it, interviewed Paraguayan military personnel in the area, as well as the airport director, and reached the following conclusions:<br />
<br />
The base was built by the military in the 1970s on Alfredo Stroessner's orders; the air strip is indeed capable of receiving heavy aircraft, including the C-5 Galaxy, but no US personnel is anywhere to be seen, and no signs of military security are present; the airport is in the middle of nowhere, without infra-structure that could support ongoing military operations (as opposed to sporadic exercises like the one that took place with US Armed Forces between 2005 and 2006 in Paraguay); there are no signs of recent investment, US or Paraguayan, to modernise facilities; and the civilian administrator of the airport was actually eager to clinch deals to increase revenue. The only foreign entity that uses the basis regularly is British CDS Oil & Gas. The air strip is indeed big: 3,5 km length, 40 m width, all 35 cm-deep concrete. The reporter concludes that if there are any plans to lease the base to the US military, they have not been implemented to any extent yet and may have become unlikely to be given the recent election of Fernando Lugo. This essentially means that,<em> when US personnel are expelled, in 2009, from the Eloy Alfaro air base in Manta, Ecuador, the only physical facilities of the US military in South America will be in Colombia: the radar unit at the Ernesto Esguerra Air Base in Tres Esquinas and the Forward Operating Location (FOL) at the military base in Larandia, both in the Department of Caquetá; and another FOL in the Arauca Department." </em>. <br />
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Of course Hilary hadn't come along with her 7 FOLs April of last year.<br />
________________________________________________________________<br />
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Wikipedia in its English version isn't really a good place to research US military bases of any of its ten combined combattant commands. But here is their list of US overseas bases which only has 8 sub-categories<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_bases_of_the_United_States_by_country" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_bases_of_the_United_States_by_country">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_bases_of...untry</a><br />
<br />
Which compares starkly with the 2005 estimate of the Argentinian Clarin magazine and is accepted by rebellion.org, aporrea, ISRI, me & my mates as others as having been quite accurate if not an underestimate. <br />
<br />
In 2005 the USA operated 757 bases no matter what you call them outside its territory worldwide.<br />
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The exposure of rendition flights linked up many of these FOL sites in Latin America with civilian airports as well as NATO airports in Europe. <br />
<br />
Are we to consider Shannon a FOL? <br />
Is Palma airport in Mallorca a FOL?<br />
<br />
<strong><br />
well if it isn't a solely civilian airport where the laws of the land apply<br />
and it's obviously not a base coz they say so -<br />
yet there are US military and secret service jets on the ground...............<br />
<br />
it must be a FOL.<br />
</strong><br />
<br />
next appendix (if any) might be a translation of Fidel Castro's wonderful "Empire & Robots" piece to English.<br />
Appendix (2) : Leaving aside peak oil & bananas - why are Latin Americans so threatened?http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93652#comment2580682009-08-21T21:44:40+00:00iosafThe list of fun stuff the Latin American has given rich Europeans whether they l...The list of fun stuff the Latin American has given rich Europeans whether they lived in North America or Europe for centuries is really long. That long list of fun stuff really only was produced and transported in great enough quantities to be enjoyed by the masses of "Europeans" in the last century. You know the stuff I'm talking about. <br />
<br />
Cocoa for Chocolate, Coffee for every energy drink that's legal, Soya for animal footstuffs and vegans, Tobacco for those who can't bear the idea of getting a nicoteine hit from eating 7 kilograms of aubergines every three hours. Quinine to put in your tonic water. Rubber to put on your fast cars' tyres. Bananas to put in your third most favourite flavouring, Pineapples to put in your colada. Cocaine to put in your nose. <br />
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In the last fifty years this expanded to the petrol and gas north Americans put in their cars and home heating.<br />
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In the last forty years this expanded to include most the factories that ensure most pharmaceuticals can be produced cheaply and keep the pharmocorps the richest on the planet : viagra, paracetemol, aspirin.<br />
<br />
<strong><br />
The New Latin American century as conceived by Latin Americans counts on much more fun stuff.<br />
</strong><br />
<br />
They quite rightly see these as their "natural resources". In some respects they even dream of someday being able to feed, educate, house and lift from squalor their masses in a way the Arabs in their century did not bother to share their oil wealth with their own.<br />
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This illustration shows a resource so precious, so wonderful, it has already caused what was termed a "war" in Bolivia when the corporations attempted to privatise is. It's such an essential commodity that in Dublin in 1992 an international conference was held which saw a resolution adopted to propose it as a universal right. For their own reasons USA and Canada blocked the last joint proposal by Spain and Germany to include that right in the charter at Geneva in early 2008.<br />
This stuff of rights, and privileges is such a good story it even went into the plot of the last 007 movie.<br />
<br />
yep it's as clear as water.<br />
<br />
as I wrote before in the second article of this series :- <strong> <br />
"it's as clear as water.<br />
the bottled spring water kind <br />
not the cryptosporidium shit you get out of the tap in Ireland".</strong><br />
<br />
So the illustration with this comment shows you the aquifiers of Latin America. These are not only springs and rivers but also subsoil resources. The most water on the planet is locked up in the geological strata of the South American continent and the Central American isthmus. These aquifiers are not contaminated nor near depletion like their equivalents in the US mid west, central Europe or the east of Asia.<br />
<br />
I'm sorry for the time it takes to read this comment and look at through the list of bases and compare it with the map and note the bases not on the last map and then look at the illustration with this one. It takes time. Meanwhile every 9 minutes a child, a human child, (whether an angelic creature or hellspawn head lice ridden anti-social langer) dies of thirst.<br />
<br />
I wrote that when the USA & Canada blocked the inclusion of the Right to Water in the Human Rights charter of the UN last year . <a href="http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86927" title="http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86927">http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86927</a> I suggested blaming those North American states & keeping an eye on them over this precious resource. I felt moved to explain what thirst is.<br />
<br />
<em>...."Thirst is the technical term for the bodily sensation caused by not having H2O. Many Europeans think it has something to do with alcohol or tea. This is quite normal. We call it residual memory. <br />
<br />
The European still remembers what water looks like with no artificial colourings. Brown like Tea or Amber like Beer. Canadians are easy to spot. They always put a Canadian flag on their luggage so people don't think their representative of the human rights abusing warlike people of the USA. The USA has less than 2 years left of deep water aquifiers for their arable land, a technical term used by amateur geologists to describe underground water which is tapped to help grow crops like wheat. You make bread from wheat & water. The USA opposed the resolution too. This will be the second time in a century they attempt to exterminate their farming population. It's easier to blame Canada for this than the USA though because we already blame the USA for too may things & people are beginning to notice & think we've a chip on our shoulder........"</em> <br />
<br />
So being fair to the US, I cited their "global newspaper of reference" 'The International Herald Tribune' :- "every 20 seconds a child dies from diseases associated with a lack of clean water"<br />
<small><br />
<a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/21/opinion/edban.php" title="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/21/opinion/edban.php">http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/21/opinion/edban.php</a><br />
<a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/151958-UN-rejects-wat...right" title="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/151958-UN-rejects-wat...right">http://www.sott.net/articles/show/151958-UN-rejects-wat...right</a><br />
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/349256" title="http://www.thestar.com/article/349256">http://www.thestar.com/article/349256</a><br />
<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19590.htm" title="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19590.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19590.htm</a><br />
<br />
background data -<br />
<a href="http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rightowater/en/" title="http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rightowater/en/">http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rightowater/en/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-122345-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html" title="http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-122345-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html">http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-122345-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.protos.be/protosh2o/water-in-the-world/water...right" title="http://www.protos.be/protosh2o/water-in-the-world/water...right">http://www.protos.be/protosh2o/water-in-the-world/water...right</a><br />
<a href="http://www.righttowater.org.uk/code/HumanRights.asp" title="http://www.righttowater.org.uk/code/HumanRights.asp">http://www.righttowater.org.uk/code/HumanRights.asp</a><br />
<a href="http://www.freshwateraction.net/" title="http://www.freshwateraction.net/">http://www.freshwateraction.net/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/a5458d1d1bbd713fc125...ument" title="http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/a5458d1d1bbd713fc125...ument">http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/a5458d1d1bbd713fc125...ument</a><br />
</small><br />
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_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_<br />
<br />
<strong> If you don't think water is much fun as cocaine, chocolate, tabacco, bananas and oil,<br />
<br />
then you might have missed that Bolivia is the world's largest repository of Lithium.<br />
<br />
the stuff they used to give depressed people but may need if the electric car gets off.<br />
</strong><br />
<br />
Alas, I don't have a map for the world's lithium deposits but I do have a recent chirpy article from the BBC which reflects the interest of the international kind of Briton in this kind of thing as well as the sensible concerns that the lefty Bolivians might want to not only extract this subsoil resource but have the cheek to make their own batteries and sell them to us at top whack.<br />
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8201058.stm" title="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8201058.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_corr...8.stm</a><br />
Appendix (3) the size of one drop of water so great Brazil & Argentina kicked out the USA.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93652#comment2580702009-08-21T22:15:07+00:00iosafArgentina refused to renew its leases on US "FOLs" after 2005. Equally Brazil re...Argentina refused to renew its leases on US "FOLs" after 2005. Equally Brazil refused US overtures to replace the Ecuador Manta base with one at Recife earlier this year. Today as Brazil's president Lulu appealed that Obama intervene in Honduras he also reiterated the concerns of the "triple frontier" at the strategic implications of the bases. The triple frontiers most precious resource is the big drop you can see in the illustration above. It is the <strong> Guarani aquifier </strong>. It's estimated extension in area is 1,194,000 kilometres squared. It's volume is as of yet unknown. To put that in perspective, the island of Ireland is 81,638 kilometres squared. <br />
<strong><br />
The little drop on the map in the illustration above this comment (third up from the botom of the right) <br />
is 14.6 bigger than the island of Ireland. </strong><br />
<br />
It is a shared resource of pure clean water between with Brazil sitting on 839,000km sq (about ten times the size of Ireland) Argentina on 226,000 sq km, Paraguay on 71,700 km sq.(about the size of the Eire state) and Uruguay rests on 59,000km sq. <br />
<br />
It is estimated the aquifier takes in between 160 and 250 kilometres cubed of water every year depending on weather conditions. <br />
<br />
40 km cubed of clean water is enough for the needs of 360,000,000 people using 300 litres of water a day.<br />
<br />
<strong> that is a big drop of water </strong>. I believe (though admit it coming after such cold hard facts such speculation and opinion may be foolish) that the Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner built that humungous air strip in the middle of nowhere that the USA wanted so badly because geologists had just realised the extension of the aquifier. Of course he only lived to 93 on the excellent medical care he enjoyed in Brasillia and can't have been thinking that far ahead.<br />
Equally on a note of speculation and unsourced facts (as of yet) it might thrill Irish readers to know that the little drop of water at the bottom of the illustration above represents the shrinking glaciers of Patagonia as well as the aquifier strata which stretch to the malvinas or falklands islands which are also known to hold huge reserves of oil and gas as well which the British government insists ought be for their exploitation alone. <br />
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Obama and Latin Americahttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/93652#comment2581232009-08-23T01:19:05+00:00leftThere is a very interesting article on Obama and Latin America at the link below...There is a very interesting article on Obama and Latin America at the link below. It's clear he's better than Bush on the issues, but will that mean much in practise?Appendix (4) Argentina's fear, the emergency summit of Mercosur & changing Latin American militarismhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/93652#comment2581242009-08-23T01:20:07+00:00iosafTwo years ago the majority of Latin American states announced plans to re-equip ...Two years ago the majority of Latin American states announced plans to re-equip their defense forces. This meant two thing, one of which ought be obvious : Latin American defense forces though in some cases very large were almost all using mostly antiquated equipment. The other thing it meant is somewhat less obvious : the legitimately elected democratic regimes of Latin America which had turned to the left of either Bolivarian hue or that of Chile, Brazil or even neo-Peronist central liberal Argentina had decided the time had come <strong> to trust their military institutions again</strong> and see in them opportunities to combine the traditional military estate's sense of "patriotism" with the emerging role Latin American states wish to play not only in continental co-operation but across the world. It is not for this series of articles on the "new Latin American century" to dwell too much on why these states did not choose to follow the example of Costa Rica and become one of the tiny minority of countries in the world which disbanded their military forces and count on no army, navy or air-force. However, as a significant sign of the non-bellicose nature of these upgrades I might touch upon the decision made by Lulu's Brazil to forego the Brazilian military's development of nuclear capability. Even though that decision might be better understood by putting it in historical context and reading part 2 of this series quite carefully just after wondering how the Brazilians could ever come so close to the dirty work of arming themselves with nukes.<br />
<br />
2005 saw the appointment of a former leftist militant, Nilda Garré to the post of Defense minister of Argentina. In answer to her critics (of the traditional military estate and grass-roots who always think they hold a monopoly on "patriotism" - she answered that <em> "she would work to ensure the armed forces reconverted themselves into a fecund role for society"......." in which the constitutionality and legitimacy of the elected executive was acknowledged by all as the commander in chief". </em>One of her first acts was to refuse the renewal of US "FOLs" or any other fib on Argentinian soil and then hold out a reconciliatory hand to the British, whose long term strategic interest in Argentina's offshore untapped oil and gas reserves must surely figure in anyone's memory of the Falklands war.<br />
<br />
I for one saw parallels to the surprise appointment of this female minister of Defense and her choice of words "fecund role" when Zapatero appointed not only a woman but pregnant woman and Catalan to boot (as well as supposedly "pacifist" in conviction) Carmen Chacon to the ministry of Defense of Spain in 2008.<br />
<br />
Today Nilda Garré confirming the agenda for an upcoming extraordinary meeting of MercoSur the association of South American states which combines all levels of co-operation in Argentina in the city of Bariloche on the 28th of this month, also spoke of the concerns of her government and ministry at the <em> tactical change in balance </em> on the continent which the ten year leases on 7 new US bases agreed between President Uribe and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur</a><br />
<br />
She revealed some details of a report by the Argentinian Defense ministry which estimate that the logistic range of these new bases would allow deployment or extra-territorial military operations as far south as the central provinces of Argentina (far beyond the strategic triple frontier or even the capital Buenos Aires) without stopping for fuel or even sandwich.<br />
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Her words were yet another demonstration of the alarm which crosses the board in South America and has even stretched as far as the ministry of foreign affairs in Spain who in June had described the proposals for the bases as "worrying and likely to lead to regional tension".<br />
<br />
It is a foregone conclusion that Mercosur will pass a resolution or even a declaration of opposition to the 7 new bases. Just as they united to protest the recent coup d'etat in Honduras when they had their last extra-ordinary meeting in Quito on the 10th of this month. <br />
<br />
It also taken for granted that together they will demand what already they are demanding seperately :<br />
<br />
guarantees and assurances about the bases, promises and oaths. They are going to repeat many of the words of the US Senators who have already wondreed why these bases have sidestepped the US constitution (as explained in this comment to part 1 of this series of articles :<a href="http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93553?&condense_comments=false#comment258109" title="http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93553?&condense_comments=false#comment258109">http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93553?&condense_comment...58109</a> )<br />
<br />
<strong> But one thing they might not say is that in a few years - they will be out of office. That to a one they have not passed ammendments to stay in presidential office. That unlike Zelaya who faced a coup at the suggestion, not even Chavez has assured his continued terms. That the swing to the left which brought co-operation, peace and the promises of prosperity this century will go back to the rightwing. <br />
<br />
That in ten years time, when even Obama has left the White House and those bases remain, <br />
only bespectacled little President Uribe of the narco-state may still be in presidential office.<br />
<br />
</strong> <br />