US Naval Fleet to Be Positioned Off the Coast of South America

[Joanne98]

The news from the Pentagon that the US is re-establishing its Fourth Naval Fleet in the Caribbean, ostensibly to "build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts" unfortunately shows that the days a US military threat to Latin America are far from over.

Furthermore, it underlines the need for the countries of Latin America to develop a new, independent military doctrine that replaces the US-backed and developed ‘National Security Doctrine’ which provided the rationale for so much terror and bloodshed throughout the region between the 1950s and 1990s, and which subordinated Latin American security interests to those of their northern neighbour. (The Fourth Fleet has not been used in the region since 1950.)

The re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet comes at a time when much of Latin America is emerging from under the imperial shadow, with Paraguay being the latest country to elect a left-wing leader. Paraguay joins a growing list of countries seeking an independent, more egalitarian and just path towards development, in direct contrast to the decades of US backed dictatorships and neoliberalism. This growing independence is a direct threat to North American domination of the region, traditionally seen as its strategic resource reserve and ‘backyard’.

The nuclear aircraft carrier-equipped US Navy fleet will provide an offshore base from which to observe, threaten, coordinate and possibly launch black operations. This is the role that similar naval groups have carried out in the past, in the Persian Gulf, against Nicaragua, and off the coasts of Brazil and Chile. They can also be rapidly expanded to provide air and logistical support for larger operations, such as the invasions of Grenada and Panama in 1983 and 1989 respectively. This is the reality that underlies the talk of ‘counter-narcotics operations’ and ‘cooperation with regional partners’ and it is the reality that the governments of Latin America must prepare for.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1283/1/

[Peace Patriot]

1. Hard to figure how they're going to put down Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina,

Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Nicaragua--all with leftist governments--and likely (next year) El Salvador and Peru. Guatemala just elected its first progressive government, ever--and they don't much like the militaristic U.S. approach to the "war on drugs." Mexico almost elected a leftist government (lost by a hair--0.05%--in a probable stolen election). Things are not going well with the Bush Cartel, so they bring out the nuclear fleet. And what are they going to do with it?

They are trying to forge a bit of fascist strategic ground in the "southern cone," where they had almost none--by supporting, organizing, funding and probably arming the white separatists in Bolivia, who want to split off the gas/oil-rich eastern provinces (bordering Paraguay), from Evo Morales' national government (first indigenous president of Bolivia, a mostly indigenous country). But Paraguay threw a monkey wrench into that plan by electing a leftist as president two weeks ago. Both he and the president of Ecuador want the U.S. bases out of their countries. So, if the Bushites were intending to ferry in U.S. troops in support of the Bolivian white separatists' "independence" via the big U.S. airstrip in Paraguay, and create a fascist enclave with eastern Bolivia and (formerly rightwing) Paraguay, this plan needs to go back to the drawing board. Bolivia is landlocked. Will they use paratroopers from the 4th fleet?

It just made me laugh, really. Donald Rumsfeld's strategic mind at work--while the ground he wants to conquer scoots out from under his war map due to grass roots organization, get out the vote and transparent vote counting!

Har-har. I shouldn't laugh. Really. Rumsfeld* means to kill--people and democracy in South America. But I just love the way the South Americans outmaneuver the Bush Junta's strategic planner at every turn.


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*"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

(He urges "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America. The ripest situation for "swift action" was Bolivia--although the Paraguay election changed that situation in favor of democracy. They also have designs upon the state of Zulia (oil) in Venezuela, bordering their $5.5 BILLION military investment, Colombia. They tried to draw Venezuela into a war with Colombia, recently--with their bombing of Ecuador. But Chavez deftly sidestepped that one, and got his compadre in Ecuador to cool off. It was a war trap. Now the Bushites are calling them "terrorists" (the presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador), and are trying to get the real terrorist, Alvaro Uribe (Colombia), out of serious hot water, by extraditing all the rightwing paramilitary death squadders, who were in Uribe's (Bush Cartel's) employ, to the U.S. on drug trafficking charges--to shut them up about Uribe (and his pal Bush). Upshot: Their only ally in South America, Uribe, is in big trouble, and has failed to deliver on the tasks they have set him. I think he's on the way out. But we shall see what evil they may have cooked up, for the 4th fleet to be involved in. I can't imagine anything they could do, at this point, to stop the overwhelming leftist trend in South America. It may have more to do with hanging onto pieces of Central America or the Caribbean--like El Salvador.)

[Judi Lynn]

2. They're trying so hard to reverse the pattern whereby the right-wing US Presidents simply picked

them off, one at a time, at their own leisure, and grafted new puppet leaders into the offices which had been occupied by democratically elected leaders who were determined to look out for their countries' people first, rather than U.S. corporate interests.

The old divide and conquer design may come back to haunt _Bush, along with his grand "shock and awe" vision, if they all start focusing on him at the same time! It WOULD be pure justice. I suspect they are aiming much higher, however, and determined to get on with their nations' lives, and make up for all the time and resources stolen by twisted U.S. right-wing aggressor thieves who raped, plundered Latin America, exploited, ravaged, tortured, slaughtered their people, and treated them all like slaves.