us military presence in latin america caribbean

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The United States has a presence in Panama (canal zone) Costa Rica is CIA niche, US. Southern Command known as SouthCom have several bases that support U.S. operations in Colombia which have caused concern since without declaring war in Latin America the US have been combating what they call " Leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia" who certainly do not want a foreign presence in their country.

Although The US says their primarily military program is to eradicate coca plants, but in actuality its to ensure access to strategic resources, especially oil. In 2003, the US Navy vacated Vieques in Pueto Rico but they are still polluting their waters since nearly 200,000 square miles is used to practice high-tech naval maneuvers, underwater tracking range for submarines, and electronic warfare range in waters near Vieques.

The ranges are used by the Navy and by military contractors to test sophisticated ships and weapon systems.

The Army also has access to a large National Guard firing range, Camp Santiago, in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Vieques, studies have found high rates of cadmium, lead, mercury, uranium, and other contaminants in the soil, food chain, and human bodies of the island's inhabitants.

Vieques have a 26.9 percent higher incidence of cancer than other Puerto Ricans.

In addition the US has four military bases in Manta, Ecuador; Aruba; Curacao; and Comalapa, El Salvador, known as "cooperative security locations," or CSLs. SouthCom also operates some 17 radar sites, mostly in Peru and Colombia.

The US has a missile tracking station on Ascension Island in the Caribbean and and Soto Cano in Palmerola, Honduras.

The United States has small military presences and property in Antigua, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and on Andros Island in the Bahamas.

Guantánamo Bay Naval Station has a lease with no termination date and serves as a logistics base for counterdrug operations and as an off-shore detention center.

There is a Peruvian Riverine Training Center in Iquitos, Peru although its not considered a U.S. base. The Pentagon have access for military flights into and out of Panama on a contract to transport cargo and passengers daily between Honduras, Panama, and Colombia.

The Pentagon is moving to shift much of the operation and maintenance of its military bases to private, for-profit contractors.

For instance The US Air Force contracted the operation of its Manta base to Dyncorp, U.S. military personnel are not accountable to local law. The United States is using its base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to circumvent international law regarding prisoners of war. US Military bases overseas leave behind ecological damage, since there are no mechanisms to require environmental cleanup.

The US has a military presence in the "Triborder Area" between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil andt there is a US Base in the Dominican Republic.

To conclude U.S. bases are a symbol of Washington's history of armed intervention and of its use of local armies is to control Latin American and Caribbean region's people and resources.

I think its fair to say that the United States doesn't recognize the universal human rights conventions.

(Those bases are the ones I know of there may be more)

Black Panther, December 9 2007, 3:25 PM

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