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Washington, Colombia near deal on base access

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090715/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_colombia_us_b...

BOGOTA – The United States and Colombia are nearing agreement on expanding the U.S. military's presence in this conflict-torn nation, likely basing several hundred Americans in a central valley in support of Air Force drug interdiction missions.

Both sides say they hope a fifth round of talks slated for later this month in Bogota will seal a 10-year lease deal.

Opponents worry a broadened U.S. military role in the world's No. 1 cocaine-producing nation could antagonize Colombia's leftist neighbors and draw Washington deeper into Colombia's complicated, long-running conflict involving leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries.

Most details of the negotiations are secret, but senior Colombian military and civilian officials familiar with negotiations told The Associated Press that the idea is to make Colombia a regional hub for Pentagon operations.

At a public hearing Wednesday called after criticism of secrecy surrounding the talks, three Colombian ministers defended the pending accord as vital in the fight against drug trafficking and "terrorism."

"We're not ceding even a piece of territory," said the acting defense minister, Gen. Freddy Padilla.

The accord would not authorize the U.S. military to use force in Colombia, and all its activities would have to be approved by the host government, he said. He added that the limit on 1,400 U.S. military personnel and contractors set by the U.S. Congress would not be exceeded.

Padilla said the deal would initially involve three air bases, principally Palanquero on the Magdalena river 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Bogota. The other two bases are Apiay on Colombia's eastern plains and Alberto Pouwels on the Caribbean coast.

The senior Colombian officials, who agreed to describe the negotiations only if their identities were not revealed, said the draft accord also specifies more frequent "visits" by U.S. warships to two naval bases, at Malaga Bay on the Pacific and Cartagena on the Caribbean. Colombia could also get preferential treatment in arms and aircraft purchases.

The U.S. interdiction missions that the Palanquero air base would take on — identifying suspect vessels and planes so Coast Guard and Navy ships can intercept them and look for drugs — have been flown out of Manta, Ecuador, on the Pacific Ocean. About 220 Americans shared space at Manta's international airport but were allowed no more than eight planes at a time.

The E-3 AWACs and P-3 Orion surveillance planes based in Manta were credited with about 60 percent of drug interdiction in the eastern Pacific. But the U.S. mission there is shutting down this week because President Rafael Correa refused to renew its lease, calling their presence a violation of Ecuador's sovereignty.

Colombia's Palanquero base had been off-limits to U.S. military operations until April 2008 because of human rights issues: A Colombian military helicopter operating from there killed 17 civilians in a 1998 bombing of a northern town that was initially covered up.

A bill passed by the U.S. House and pending in the Senate would earmark $46 million for construction at Palanquero, which has a 3,500-meter (11,550-foot) runway and two huge hangars. The base is home to Colombia's main fighter wing.

The money would be released 15 days after a base agreement is signed.

The U.S. Embassy declined to comment about the talks. Asked recently about the talks, U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield stressed that Washington would not be acquiring bases but rather obtaining increased access to Colombian facilities.

A spokesman for the U.S. military's Southern Command, Robert Appin, said the Pentagon would have no immediate comment.

However, one indication of the Pentagon's goals can be found in a U.S. Air Mobility Command document, "Global En Route Strategy," presented in early April at a symposium at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

Beyond counternarcotics, the document says, Palanquero could become a "cooperative security location" from which "mobility operations could be executed" — that is, a potential jumping-off point for operations by expeditionary forces.

"Nearly half the continent can be covered by a C-17 (military transport) without refueling" from Palanquero, the document says.

Rafael Pardo, a former Colombian defense minister who is running for president in the May 2010 election, has complained of secrecy surrounding the negotiations and worries about alienating other South American nations. The radar and communications intercept ability of U.S. aircraft can extend well beyond Colombia's borders.

"If it's to launch surveillance flights over other nations then it seems to me that would be needless hostility by Colombia against its neighbors," Pardo said.

At Wednesday's hearing, Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the agreement would specify that U.S. flights would not cross Colombia's borders without permission from affected countries. "This is a bilateral accord whose scope is exclusively in Colombian territory," he said.

It is not clear what other restrictions might be placed on U.S. military aircraft, warships or troops. Putting more Americans on the ground would raise the risk of casualties, although Colombia's leftist rebels — chiefly financed by cocaine trafficking — have no record of attacking Americans in the country.

About 600 U.S. military personnel and civilian contractors already work in Colombia, according to the most recent figures. Advisers are attached to Colombian army divisions, have their own offices at armed forces headquarters and have trained thousands of Colombian troops since 2000.

Under U.S. law, the number of Defense Department employees in Colombia cannot exceed 800 while the number of military contractors cannot top 600.

That number would not change under the draft accord, the senior Colombian officials said. Nor, they said, would U.S. troops lose their immunity from local criminal prosecution.

While drug interdiction is the chief U.S. goal, some worry that bringing in more Americans will lead to the U.S. taking sides in a conflict in which leftist rebels and far-right death squads, often backed by the military, have killed tens of thousands of people.

The U.S. could be pushing Colombia to negotiate a settlement with the rebels, said John Lindsay-Poland of the U.S.-based Fellowship of Reconciliation. Instead, "this is an indicator that the United States is going to be supporting a military approach."

By cali373 on Jul 17, 2009, 09:10 in Politics & the war.

cali373 says on Jul 17, 2009, 09:13:

"Nor, they said, would U.S. troops lose their immunity from local criminal prosecution. "

I want to thank Uribe for increasing the U.S. military domination of South America. no, this is not imperialism, not one bit.

Smile if you are a thinker!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

youngman says on Jul 17, 2009, 09:38:

well they can always let Hugo Chavez take them over...

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Jul 17, 2009, 10:00:

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

This is the historical handshake.
The gringo general looks like a used cars salesman who just sold a rotten old chevy for the price of a lamborghini.

A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi

2 funny, 0 helpful.

Loggi says on Jul 17, 2009, 11:39:

lamberghini?

Live for the moments you can't put into words

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Jul 17, 2009, 11:43:

Whatever, you get my drift.

A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi

0 funny, 0 helpful.

somedumbguy says on Jul 17, 2009, 12:23:

The headline should read:

$46 Milllion to the Military Industrial Complex.

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seacomoche says on Jul 17, 2009, 22:19:

Boy, this is just great!

Now when we get another rabid right-wing president in the U.S. we'll be in perfect position to actively (but secretly) take sides again, thus engaging ourselves in another "none of our business" conflict while creating tons of animosity towards ourselves as occurred in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Is there any way to throw a monkeywrench in this?

1 funny, 0 helpful.

Sonny says on Jul 18, 2009, 04:45:

The monkeywrench is in the white house

Just taking life easy. I worked hard for it and deserve it and now doing it.

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scumbuster says on Jul 18, 2009, 05:10:

The pacific side of Colombia could use somw development and a base there will do it. Look at Manta in Ecuador.. We are closeing down at Manta and moving up the coast a little.

Tomas Jefferson “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

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