In recent Latin American conflicts, the Unites States has looked on, detached, only to weigh in at the last minute when all is said and done. Rising tensions between Venezuela and Colombia in recent months have been largely portrayed as a neighborly spat: Hugo Chavez, per usual, the main agitator, in a war of words with an embattled Álvaro Uribe over Uribe's decision to allow U.S. military personnel onto Colombian military bases. But as the phrase “arms race” begins to be bandied about in Washington, and Chavez warned his armed forces to prepare for war, Foreign Policy decided to get both sides of the story and hear from the Venezuelan and Colombian ambassadors to the U.S.
On October 30, the United States signed a military agreement with Colombia that will grant United States military personnel, intelligence officials, and defense contractors access to military bases inside Colombia's borders. (Official U.S. personnel authorization is new, though DynCorp and other U.S. contractors have operated in Colombia for nearly a decade.) Understandably, South America panicked. Eleven out of 12 of the continent’s leaders have expressed serious concern. While Colombia insists that U.S. presence is purely to support Colombia’s ongoing drug war, a budget request to Congress from the U.S. Air Force tells a different story.
The Venezuelan ambassador writes:
In its fiscal 2010 budget request presented to Congress in May, the U.S. Air Force justified an air base development project in Colombia by explaining that "Development of this CSL [cooperative security location] provides a unique opportunity for full spectrum operations in a critical sub region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies, anti-U.S. governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disaster."
The U.S. Air Force subsequently removed any mention of "anti-U.S. governments" from the document, but did so only after the U.S.-Colombia cooperation agreement was signed and various countries expressed their strong reservations.
With almost 800 bases worldwide, the concern is well-founded. The United States has already provided significant assistance to Colombia under Plan Colombia that began in 2000. However, recent scandals involving abuses by paramilitary groups and the Colombian army raises questions about U.S. involvement with the army at all.
In any case, U.S. policy is at the center of a debate that has an entire continent riled. Wither the voice of the president or the secretary of state? The Obama administration has yet to make an official statement, and in the meantime, the debate rages on.
--Laura Dean
