Obama should explain the details of proposed U.S. military increase in Colombia
Today's news media includes multiple stories highlighting yesterday's UNASUR meeting in Quito, Ecuador and the groups' overall opposition to the Colombia-United States agreement to increase U.S. military presence at seven Colombian bases, despite its inability to come to a consensus on an official statement on the proposed U.S. military increase (a story which we covered yesterday on this blog). While the majority of the stories cover Brazilian President Lula da Silva's proposal for the United States to explain the plan to the concerned leaders of the region and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's statement that "the winds of war are blowing" in the region as a result of the proposed U.S. military increase, one article stands out. The Los Angeles Times editorial, titled "Washington is scaring our Latin American neighbors," calls on the United States to explain exactly what this military buildup in Colombia means. The editorial board writes that after Colombian President Álvaro Uribe had to spend three days last week traveling to every country in South America in an attempt to quell other South American leaders' concerns about the proposal, President Obama could at least try to explain in more detail what this really means for the region.
Uribe maintains that the purpose of the deal is to help Colombia defeat its leftist guerrillas, who are also the backbone of the country's drug trade. His assurances, however, can go only so far -- because the rest of South America isn't afraid of Colombia, it's afraid of the U.S.
While it is doubtful that whatever President Obama says will fix the tensions that this proposal has already created (especially since a lot of the concerns could have been avoided if the Obama Administration had talked to other leaders in the region about the ongoing negotiations before their content became public), it seems that, as the LA Times editorial puts it, "Washington too should be working hard to quell the fears it has raised in the region." So far, all the President and his administration have told us is that the United States is not putting bases in Colombia, but more details about the purpose and scope of the increased presence are needed. The editorial wraps up with this:
It was clear that the United States needed to relocate military personnel who had been deployed in Ecuador but who could not remain after leftist President Rafael Correa refused to renew the U.S. lease on the Manta air base. But the deal with Colombia doesn't look like the mere shift in drug interdiction efforts that Uribe is selling to his neighbors. Worse, it gives Chavez cover for increased anti-American rhetoric, a nice distraction from his country's economic woes.
While President Uribe should continue to work with Colombia's neighbors in an effort to disclose the intentions of this proposed agreement, President Obama and his State Department must also play a role, in a process of transparency that should have begun weeks ago, since there are two parties to this agreement.