Bolivia and Venezuela, military cooperation agreement

[bemildred]

President Evo Morales has announced plans to build three military bases with Venezuelan assistance along Bolivia's eastern borders with Brazil and Paraguay, where more than 2,000 elite troops will receive advanced training.

Mr. Morales says the bases are needed because the United States is "scheming" against Bolivia through neighboring countries, but domestic critics think he is more interested in having the troops available to stem unrest in a region that increasingly is demanding autonomy.

Speaking to journalists before he left for the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cuba last week, Mr. Morales announced that the Venezuelan military would "support" the building of the bases, which the Paraguayan government has denounced as a "provocation."

"Every country has the right to strengthen its defenses," said Mr. Morales, who claimed he was responding to a "campaign by the government of the United States which wants to confront us."

MercoPress

[BrotherBuzz]

1. I guess Evo Morales is concerned about Mariscal Estigarribia

Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy

by Conn Hallinan

November 24, 2005

<snip>

But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.

U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .


<snip>

“Privatizing” war is not only the logical extension of the Bush administration's mania for contracting everything out to the private sector; it also shields the White House's activities from the U.S. Congress. “My complaint about the use of private contractors,” says U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsy (D-IL), “is their ability to fly under the radar to avoid accountability.”

<snip>

Would the United States try to destabilize Bolivia's economy while training people how to use military force to insure Enron, Shell, British Gas, Total, Repsol, and the United States continues to get Bolivian gas for pennies on the dollar? Quite likely.

And would the White House like to use such a coup as a way to send a message to other countries? You bet. President Bush may be clueless on geography, but he is not bad at overthrowing governments and killing people.

<more>

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAL20051124&articleId=1322

[Judi Lynn]

4. Just saw something SUPER in your article which needs attention,

immediately!

Hope people will remember reading this when they see that pathetic claim launched again and again by the _Bush administration, and by other right-wing idiots:

Life at the Triple Frontier The Bush administration has made the “Triple Frontier Region” where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet into the South American equivalent of Iraq's Sunni Triangle.

According to William Pope, U.S. State Department Counterterrorist Coordinator, the United States has evidence that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed spent several months in the area in 1995. The U.S. military also says it seized documents in Afghanistan with pictures of Paraguay and letters from Arabs living in Cuidad del Este, a city of some 150,000 people in the tri-border region.

The Defense Department has not revealed what the letters contained, and claims that the area is a hotbed of Middle East terrorism have been widely debunked. The U.S. State Department's analysis of the region—”Patterns of Terrorism”—found no evidence for the charge, and an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study found the area awash with money smuggling, but not terrorism.
(snip)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Base/Heliport History: add text data

• The Estigarribia airbase was constructed in the 1980s for US technicians hired by the Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and is capable of housing 16,000 troops
  
• The base has an enormous radar system, huge hangars and an air traffic control tower. The airstrip itself is larger than the one at the international airport in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. It's oversized for the Paraguayan air force, which only has a handful of small aircrafts
  
• Pope John Paul II was there in May 1988 when he visited the town of Santa Teresita, 3 kilometers away
  
• Estigarribia has a population of about 2000, which 300 belongs to the 6th Infantry Division, 3rd Corps, paraguayan army garrison
  
• On a May 2005 agreement, Paraguay allows United States to use the base.

http://www.helis.com/database/go/py_mariscal_estigarribia.php

[mom cat]

5. Interesting connections between Rev Moon, Paraguy and Bush fam.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-02,GGLG:en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Rev.+Moon,+Paraguay&spell=1

[BrotherBuzz]

6. I think the claim of the terrorism was nothing but a trial balloon

and a lead balloon, at that.

The real goal has been (and will be in the future) is to capture the natural gas fields. Their plans have had minor setbacks, but dimes to donuts, the Great South American Gas War are looming over the horizon, and the Bush* cabal plans to be in the middle of it. Cripes, Arnie has greased the ways for the CNP ports in California, and no product to import. Can't have that.

[High Plains]

2. This comes days after the US singled out the two in the annual

drug certification report as not playing ball.

In Venezuela's case, it appears transparently political, given that Venezuela doesn't produce any drugs and is only used as a transhsipment point, like everywhere else in the region.

In the case of Bolivia, the US government doesn't like it's coca policies. Bolivia doesn't want to eradicate coca, but works with the US to go after cocaine traffickers. That, apparently, isn't enough.

[killbotfactory]

3. What a crazy dingbat loon

He's a SOCIALIST after all...

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/431/1/

nothing to see here.