What is the U.S. Military Doing
in Paraguay?
by Ben Dangl
Upside Down World August 3, 2005
(ZNet)
The U.S. military is conducting secretive
operations in Paraguay and reportedly building a new base there.
Human rights groups and military analysts in the region believe
trouble is brewing. However, the U.S. embassy in Paraguay denies
the base exists and describes the military activity as routine.
According to an article in the Bolivian newspaper, El Deber, a
U.S. base is being developed in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay,
200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia. The base will permit
the landing of large aircraft and is capable of housing up to
16,000 troops. A contingent of 500 U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay
on July 1st with planes, weapons, equipment and ammunition. (1)
With Bolivia's recent uprisings, their
enormous gas reserves, and a presidential election on the way,
this questionable activity could pave the way for a U.S. intervention.
Rumors of Al Qaeda training grounds near Paraguay may also work
to the Bush administration's advantage as it makes a case for
military operations in the region.
On May 26, 2005 the Paraguayan senate
approved the entrance of the troops, granting them total immunity,
free from Paraguayan and International Criminal Court jurisdiction.
The legislature is due to expire in December 2006, but is automatically
extendable. Since December 2004, the U.S. has been pressuring
Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay into signing a deal which
would grant immunity to U.S. military. The Bush administration
threatened to deny the countries up to $24.5 million in economic
and military aid if they refused to sign the deal. Paraguay was
the only country to accept the offer. (2)
US Embassy Denies Base Claims, Rumsfeld
Looks Forward to Military Cooperation
A statement issued from the U.S. embassy
in Paraguay explained that the military exercises in question
involve humanitarian and medical assistance to poor communities
as well as military training. The embassy maintained that the
U.S. has "absolutely no intention of establishing a military
base anywhere in Paraguay" and "has no intention to
station soldiers for a lengthy period in Paraguay." (3)
The Pentagon used this same rhetoric when
describing its actions in Manta, Ecuador, now the home of an $80
million U.S. military base. First they said the facility was an
archaic "dirt strip" which would be used for weather
monitoring and would not permanently house U.S. personnel. Days
later, the Pentagon stated that Manta was to serve as a major
military base tasked with a variety of security-related missions.
Human rights groups have linked the U.S. base in Manta to the
2002 coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. (4)
Before the arrival of U.S. troops in Paraguay,
Luis Castiglioni, the Vice President of Paraguay, visited Washington
D.C. where he met with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. During
the visit, they discussed defense and security in South America
and the "international war on terrorism." Rumsfeld said
the U.S. would be sending experts to Paraguay from the Center
for Hemispheric Defense Studies, (an institution similar to the
infamous School of the Americas) in order to develop a "planning
seminar on systems for national security." Rumsfeld promised
to visit the country and expressed his "full support for
the coming exercises between the American and Paraguayan armed
forces." (5)
If history is any lesson, Paraguayans
are right to be wary. Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ), a human
rights group in the country, warned that the terms of the deal
struck between the U.S. and Paraguay are "very dangerous
to us, especially taking into account that it was U.S. soldiers
who taught torture and other forms of human rights violations
in courses at the School of the Americas under the National Security
Doctrine." (6)
Orlando Castillo of SERPAJ stated, "The
U.S. has strong aspirations to convert Paraguay into another Panama
for their troops, and they're not far from controlling the southern
cone and extending the war in Colombia." A U.S. military
base operated in Panama for nearly 90 years. (7)
Possible US Military Intervention in Bolivia
If the new U.S. base does in fact exist,
its location makes sense. It will put U.S. troops within easy
striking distance of the Bolivian provinces of Santa Cruz and
Tarija, home to the second largest gas reserves in South America.
Bolivian business leaders interested in privatizing and exporting
the country's gas have spearheaded a move in these resource rich
provinces for a secessionist referendum, which will take place
on August 12th. If the region votes for autonomy, it's likely
the gas will be privatized, an unpopular plan that's generated
massive protests in the country since 2003. If new civil unrest
occurs over the gas issue, the U.S. military will be in a strategic
position to intervene, in part to protect the interests of U.S.
energy corporations.
The U.S. is currently working from within
the Bolivian borders to create military networks. The U.S. State
Department recently asked riot gear manufacturers to submit proposals
for equipment it plans to send to the Bolivian government. The
U.S. is asking for 3,700 upper body tactical padding suits, and
3,700 pairs of shin guards. On the same day as that request, the
US Army issued a separate bid to build an emergency operations
center in La Paz, which will consist of a "2-story buildingwith
reinforced concrete floors, masonry walls and a reinforced concrete
slabEstimated cost range of the project is from $100,000 to $250,000."
(8)
U.S. military operations and assistance
are nothing new in the region. However, the timing of these activities
appears to be more than a coincidence. Bolivia is scheduled to
have presidential election in December 2005 and leftist coca grower
leader and congressman, Evo Morales may have a strong chance at
winning. If Morales, or another candidate unpopular with the Bush
administration, is elected, then the U.S. could be poised to disrupt
Bolivia's democratic process, as they did during the 2002 Venezuelan
coup and the 2004 ousting of Haitian president Bertram Aristide.
Regarding U.S. military activity in Paraguay,
Bolivian Chancellor Armando Loayza said, "There is no specific
information. Between Bolivia and Paraguay there is perfect harmony
and cooperation" However, Bolivian author and military analyst,
Juan Ramon Quintana, believes the US military's activities in
Paraguay are a subject that concerns the entire region. "We
should be very worried. It is a most negative sign, dramatic in
the fact that there exists the possibility of intervention in
strategic areas linked to energy and a regional project."
(9)
"Terrorism Networks in Triple Border
Region"
The U.S. interest in Paraguay makes sense
for other reasons as well; the triple border between Paraguay,
Argentina and Brazil has been long been rumored to be an "Islamic
terrorist training ground." According to New Yorker reporter,
Jeffrey Goldberg, the area is "one of the most lawless places
in the worldalso the center of Middle Eastern terrorism in South
America." Goldberg reported that Hamas and Al Qaeda are associated
with the terrorists in this region. (10)
As the U.S. government was gearing up
for a war in Iraq, Goldberg also wrote an article that purportedly
linked Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The article was gratefully
used by the Bush administration to further their argument for
war. Critics believe Goldberg often forms a hypothesis and then
goes out to try and prove it. Veteran muckraker, Alexander Cockburn
found various inaccuracies in the article linking Al Qaeda to
Hussein and wrote that "Goldberg once served in Israel's
armed forces, which may or may not be a guide to his political
agenda." (11)
As we've seen in Iraq, the Bush administration
understands that the "war on terror" can serve as a
great excuse to claim natural resources. The U.S. military activity
in Paraguay combined with the triple border terrorist theory and
the gas reserves in a precarious Bolivia, sound like a recipe
for another U.S. "democracy spreading" bonanza.
Benjamin Dangl has traveled and worked
as a journalist in Bolivia and Paraguay. He is the editor of www.upsidedownworld.org,
click HERE to read more of his articles.
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