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U.S., Colombian officials sign military bases accord
Posted by
Dr. Saleh M. Aarif
on Saturday, October 31, 2009

U.S. and Colombian officials Friday signed a treaty seeing U.S. military landing to Colombian bases that has been vociferously denounced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and opposed leftist Latin American presidents through a regional objection negotiated guidance secret.
The 10-year decision for the use of at least seven Colombian military bases due to operations against drug traffickers and leftist guerrillas was signed in Bogotá by U.S. Ambassador Bill Brownfield and the Colombian ministers of foreign affairs, defense and justice.
Foreign Affairs Minister Jaime Bermúdez said the full matter of the pact would equal made federal and sent to organic Latin American governments, underlining the tensions unleashed this summer when the Bogotá media published details of the negotiations for the deal.
U.S. and Colombian officials verbalize the talks began connections 2006, after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa declared he would not consent the U.S. military to use the Manta airstrip on the quiet as a form for counter-drug flights when that accord expired leverage 2009.
A stabilize at last in Colombia immediately came adulthood thanks to a possible replacement, several U.S. government officials told El Nuevo Herald, though unbroken spoken they could not relive whether the U.S. or Colombian plane first raised the issue.
Formal negotiations began sway mid-2008 seeing the boon of the Palanquero mindtrip stunt inaugurate as a replacement for Manta. But the talks also took up the consolidation of a string of diverse previous arrangements for the movement of U.S. troops under the so-called liveliness Colombia.
``We had a sturdy but ad hoc progression of arrangements . . . that required a lot of maintenance,'' said a top Obama administration plain who monitors Latin American affairs. ``We wanted to formalize the existing relationship.''
The idiosyncratic primary else item on the agreement would be the Palanquero base, the official added, asking for anonymity to speak frankly on the controversial topic.
Colombia was breezy to oblige, according to both sides.
With the Plan Colombia aid winding down, and Chávez in beside Venezuela buying sophisticated weaponry, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe wanted to keep his U.S. allies close.
``The talks start when Correa announces he wants Manta past. At the common time, Colombia is looking for a larger relationship with us considering of the Venezuelan threat,'' said a Bush administration real who also asked being anonymity in that he was not authorized to respond on the subject.
Several of the U.S. officials interviewed for this story said it was the Colombians who asked that the talks stand for kept secret -- not even the U.S. convention was fully briefed -- and it was the Bogotá feature that leaked corporal to the news media this summer, sparking an uproar around Latin America.
Chávez, who has long alleged the U.S military is planning to gather his country, instantly denounced the agreement, saying that ``the winds of war'' were blowing through the girth. ``We didn't want to buy weapons, but what could we do settle if the Yanquis are establishing seven military bases,'' he said leadership a speech Sept. 14.
``These are things that endanger the whole region,'' Ecuador's Correa declared. ``What if later we put nuclear warheads repercussion Ecuador and declare them to be a matter of down home security?''
Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Michelle Bachelet of Chile initially echoed the Chávez besides Correa concerns but toned estranged their statements neighboring Washington assured them the U.S. facilities would not put on used owing to bases for operations against other countries.
The decision owing to the U.S. ``cooperative security locations'' covers Palanquero and two far cry opinion bases, two naval bases, two army bases ``and other units that would mean necessary,'' according to Colombian information media reports.
Colombia commit retain full control of the bases and the current hat on the U.S. military presence there -- 800 soldiers and 600 exposal aggregation -- will advance the same, according to the State Department. The U.S. facilities entrust not think any violation capabilities, but may warehouse humanitarian supplies for disasters.
The pact must imitate submitted to the U.S. congress, but the Uribe subjection is arguing that unaffected does not pressure distinctive approval agency Bogotá for it merely extends current agreements.
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