This is interesting. This transpired a few days ago.
Pact signed to expand US use of Colombia bases
By FRANK BAJAK (AP) – Oct 30, 2009
BOGOTA — In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers on Friday signed a pact giving American personnel expanded access to military bases in this drug-producing country, a deal that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region's security.
Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the 10-year deal takes effect immediately and restricts U.S. military operations to Colombian territory — alluding to fears expressed by leftist leaders in the region that it would make Colombia a base for asserting U.S. power in South America.
Details of the pact, which aims to boost drug and counterinsurgency operations, were not immediately released. But Colombia said in a statement that it "respects the principles of equal sovereignty, territorial integrity and nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states."
The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the accord "does not signal, anticipate or authorize an increase in the presence of U.S. military or civilian personnel in Colombia."
Officials have said it would expand U.S. access to seven Colombian bases while maintaining at 1,400 the cap on military personnel and contractors specified by U.S. law. Bermudez said that with the pact Colombia was seeking to improve its communications and intelligence capabilities, for which U.S. cooperation has already been a boon.
U.S. counter-drug flights that previously operated out of Manta, Ecuador, will now be based at the Palanquero base in the central Magdalena valley and Navy port calls will be more frequent.
"We are not bringing U.S. soldiers to Colombia for combat," Bermudez told reporters. "We're not going to see an unusual number of U.S. military personnel, nor U.S. planes in excess. What we're going to see is what we've always seen."
The top U.S. Defense Department official for Latin America, Frank Mora, told The Associated Press in August there would be no "U.S. offensive capacity" such as fighter jets from any of the bases. U.S. construction is, however, planned at Palanquero to expand facilities.
The State Department noted that "U.S. personnel presence has been in a gradual decline" in Colombia, a trend it said it expected to continue. U.S. law specifies that no more than 800 U.S. military personnel and 600 civilian contractors may be in country at any one time. Currently, there are 230 U.S. service personnel and 400 contractors in Colombia, Bermudez said.
President Chavez, who survived a 2002 coup attempt that he claims was U.S.-backed, has said Washington could use the bases agreement to destabilize the region.
South America's main power broker, President Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, however, dropped his initial objections after senior U.S. officials and Colombia's conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, made separate visits to explain it.
Uribe also assured regional leaders at an August summit that U.S. military operations would be restricted to Colombian territory, where a half-century-old leftist insurgency persists as well as violence related to drug trafficking.
Critics of the accord say it sends the wrong signal to Colombia's neighbors, especially given that the Andean nation remains the world's No. 1 cocaine producer despite receiving more than $4 billion in U.S. military aid since 2000.
"At a time when we should be pursuing every kind of diplomatic avenue to reduce tensions, this appears to be a military decision that may increase tension," said George Withers of the liberal U.S. think tank Washington Office on Latin America.
Under the pact, U.S. military personnel will continue to enjoy diplomatic immunity, exempting them from local criminal prosecution. Some Colombians objected to that, citing a case of two U.S. servicemen accused in 2007 of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. The two have since left the country.
Asked Friday about the case, the U.S. Embassy referred to a statement it issued in August saying there was currently "insufficient evidence to prosecute the two U.S. service members involved."
Increased U.S. military assistance has been key to the recent weakening of the country's main leftist rebel group. The U.S. military has offices at armed forces headquarters and advisers attached to army divisions.
Although there's no evidence of any direct correlation, the boost in aid and cooperation also has coincided with a sharp increase in extrajudicial killings by Colombia's military.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Associated Press: Pact signed to expand US use of Colombia bases
Two unidentified members of the US military, left,
leave Colombia's Ministry of Affairs headquarters in Bogota,
Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. In a private, low-key ceremony, the US
ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield and three
Colombian ministers signed a pact Friday to expand Washington's
military's presence, a deal that Venezuela's President Hugo
Chavez has called a threat to the region's security.
(AP Photo/Christian Escobar Mora)
In this photo released by Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
press office, US ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield,
second left, and Colombia's Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez,
second right, sign a bilateral agreement as Colombia's Interior
and Justice Minister Fabio Valencia, left, and Colombia's
Defense Minister Gabriel Silva, right, look on at the San Carlos
palace in Bogota, Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. In a private, low-key
ceremony, the US ambassador and three Colombian ministers
signed a pact Friday to expand Washington's military's presence,
a deal that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has called a
threat to the region's security. (AP Photo/Colombia Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Maria Alexandra Maldonado)