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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS