South American presidents attacked plans for US bases in Colombia at a summit on Friday, and issued a statement warning “foreign military forces” against threatening national sovereignty.
The meeting, in the Argentine mountain resort of Bariloche, heard fears from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his leftwing allies that the bases were part of a US strategy to act freely in Latin America, possibly against his oil-rich country.
The final summit declaration warned that “foreign military forces must not ... menace the sovereignty and integrity of a South American country and in consequence regional peace and stability.”
Its deliberately broad language, avoiding direct reference to the US military and Venezuela, permitted all 12 presidents present to sign the text, including Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
It did reflect, however, strenuous demands from Brazil, Chile and Argentina that binding guarantees be made that the US military assets and personnel in Colombia not be used for any other purpose other than their stated mission of fighting drug-traffickers and Colombian rebels. Some 300 US troops are already stationed at bases in Colombia to help fight drug trafficking under the terms of the bilateral “Plan Colombia.”
The new agreement, however, allows the expansion of the force to 800 US soldiers and 600 civilian officials, and prompted a regional crisis that led to the extraordinary UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) summit on Friday.
An attempt by Bolivian President Evo Morales to sign other presidents on to a statement rejecting the bases plan failed.
“As long as there are uniformed foreigners in a South American country, it’s difficult for us to think there can be peace,” Morales had told the summit.
Chavez was blunter.
The imminent deal to give the US military access to seven bases in neighboring Colombia was “about mobility to make war,” said the fierce anti-US critic.
“The US global strategy for domination explains the installation of these bases in Colombia,” said Chavez, brandishing a document he said was a US air force strategy document setting out that aim.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the document — titled “White Paper Air Mobility Command: Global En Route Strategy” — was “just an academic document.”
It described possible air bases in Latin America the US air force had considered using, depending on geographic and political availability.
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
RSS