The US needs to reassure Latin American countries about a deal allowing it to use military bases in Colombia, a top US general said on Thursday.
The controversial deal with Bogota, which has sparked an angry reaction in capitals across the region, would permit the US military to operate surveillance aircraft from seven bases to track drug-running boats in the Pacific Ocean.
“I think we need to do a better job of explaining to them what we’re doing and making it as transparent as possible, because anybody’s concerns are valid,” General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference.
Washington sought out Colombia to make up for the loss of its hub for counter-narcotics operations in Ecuador.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa had refused to renew an agreement that had allowed the US military to fly out of the city of Manta for the past 10 years.
With the use of Ecuador’s base set to expire this year, US officials say they are close to sealing an agreement with Colombia that will allow US aircraft to continue tracking narcotics traffickers.
Colombia said on Wednesday it was close to finalizing talks with Washington on the US military’s use of seven of its bases. Colombian negotiators were in Washington on Thursday at work on the deal.
Colombia will receive more than US$40 million in the deal as well as US military assistance for Bogota’s counter-narcotics efforts, said a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cartwright and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the deal was not a unilateral move but the product of a partnership with Colombia designed to target drug cartels.
“The strategic intent is, in fact, to be able to provide to the Colombians what they need in order to continue to prosecute their efforts against the internal threats that they have,” Cartwright said.
Colombia raised concern throughout the region after announcing July 15 that it was negotiating a deal that would give US forces access to the bases.
Frank Mora, a Defense Department official for Latin America, however, insists that the controversy is a tempest in a teapot.
“This agreement simply formalizes what already almost exists right now,” he said by telephone.
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