Colombia said it has struck a deal with the US allowing Washington to use its military bases in a move that has drawn angry fire from governments across Latin America.
“This agreement reaffirms the commitment of both parties in the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism,” Colombia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Officials said the two countries agreed the text of an agreement, which now has to be reviewed by government agencies in Bogota and Washington before getting a final signature.
The controversial deal would permit the US military to operate surveillance aircraft from seven bases to track drug-running boats in the Pacific Ocean.
A top US general said on Thursday that the US needed to reassure regional powers about the deal after reports of negotiations rankled several leaders and even prompted neighboring Venezuela to claim the “winds of war” were blowing.
“I think we need to do a better job of explaining to them what we’re doing and making it as transparent as possible, because anybody’s concerns are valid,” General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference this week.
Washington sought out its ally Colombia to make up for the loss of its hub for counter-narcotics operations in Manta, Ecuador.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa had refused to renew an agreement that allowed the US military to fly out of Manta for the past 10 years.
The deal is worth more than US$40 million for Bogota, along with expanded US military assistance for Bogota’s counter-narcotics efforts, said a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cartwright and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said this week that the deal was not a unilateral move, but the product of a partnership with Colombia designed to target drug cartels.
“The strategic intent is, in fact, to be able to provide to the Colombians what they need in order to continue to prosecute their efforts against the internal threats that they have,” Cartwright said.
Colombia has raised concern throughout the region, which has a troubled history of US military interventions, after announcing on July 15 that it was negotiating the deal.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led the charge, alongside his Ecuadoran counterpart and ally Correa.
Speaking in Quito at a regional summit last weekend, Chavez said he was fulfilling his “moral duty” by telling fellow leaders that the “winds of war were beginning to blow.”
“This could generate a war in South America,” he said.
Other South American leaders, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have asked Colombia to explain its decision. Responding to criticism, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said on Friday the purpose of the deal was to “defeat terrorism,” adding that the accord with the US would serve “as an insurance policy for neighboring nations.”
Uribe said he would attend an emergency summit of the Union of South American Nations that will gather on Aug. 28 in Bariloche, Argentina, to discuss the situation created by the Colombian base agreement.
However, Frank Mora, a US Defense Department official for Latin America, said that the controversy was a storm in a teapot.
“This agreement simply formalizes what already almost exists right now,” he said.
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