UNASUR invites U.S. to discuss military agreement with Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

UNASUR invites U.S. to discuss military agreement with Colombia
2009-12-09 10:55:51

QUITO, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) invited the United States to discuss with the block the Colombia-U.S. military cooperation agreement, which allows the presence of U.S. troops in Colombia, the Ecuadorian government said Tuesday.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa who is holding the rotating presidency of UNASUR made the request to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Ecuadorian foreign ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, the dialogue is aimed at "discussing issues of vital importance for the region."

At a ministerial meeting in November, UNASUR countries reached agreement to seek a dialogue with the U.S. to discuss the guarantees it will offer to the region regarding its military agreement with Colombia, which allows the presence of U.S. troops in the country to combat drug trafficking and terrorism.

The UNASUR countries are worried that the U.S. military presence in Colombia may be used to perform spying tasks against other nations.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/09/content_12616352.htm

[Peace Patriot]

1. I hope South America's quiet diplomacy works to remove this huge threat from their midst--

the big US military buildup in Colombia, and other evidence of a Pentagon war plan. If only, if ONLY, if ***ONLY*** our global corporate predators would be content with a level playing field in Latin America--independence and sovereignty for Latin American countries, FAIR trade deals for their oil and other resources, and long LONG overdue social justice--there is NO REASON they have to keep STEALING things and wreaking bloody havoc on everybody they steal things from. Everybody profits, with peace and fair trade. Or, I guess I should say, everybody makes REASONABLE profits, with peace and fair trade.

I think the driver of BAD U.S. policy in Latin America are our war profiteers, who drive the war machine that promises enforcement of "free trade for the rich" by bloody means. They are not the only culprits but they provide the incentive to corps like Exxon Mobil, Chiquita and Monsanto--the hubris, the ambition, the greed--to seek all the profits from everything, everywhere. The big bully US war machine stands behind them, with all of its war profiteer corporations meanwhile bleeding U.S. taxpayers of jillions of dollars.

The South Americans have a lot of work to do, to fend off this threat--and they may end up having to defend their independence and their resources and their democracies militarily. They don't want that drag on their potentially prosperous future, nor of course the horrors of war. But, from what I can see, that's what the Pentagon has in mind. The South Americans have notable strengths, both as to the genuineness of their democracies, solidarity among the many leftist governments and diplomacy. Interesting that the U.S.--by treachery and typical bribery and bullying--shoved shit in their faces on Honduras, as to backstabbing 'diplomacy.' Disgraceful behavior by the Obamites. But South American diplomacy is quite strong and will recover. A lot depends upon it. And if our corpo-fascist rulers continue to act like Hitler--invading countries to grab their resources to fuel their war machine and world domination goals, and heaping genocidal (and racist) bloodshed on others--they are going to suffer Hitler's fate, and--tragically--drag us down with them, we, the people of the U.S., who seem helpless before the U.S. war machine.