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...in Latin America, generally. Not sure about Cuba, but this spying report is not a good sign. (If this is what the Obama administration is going to use easing of travel restrictions for, then good will is already compromised and may be lost.)
Latin America, generally...
1. Secretly negotiated agreement with Colombia for SEVEN new U.S. military bases in Colombia, NO LIMIT on the number of U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors' who can be deployed there, unlimited diplomatic immunity for whatever U.S. troops and 'contractors' do there, and U.S. military use of all civilian airports and other facilities--in pursuit of "full spectrum military operations in the region."
2. Sneaky, treacherous, backstabbing behavior on the Honduran rightwing military coup, aimed at installation of a far rightwing government, to protect U.S. global corporate predator interests and to secure the U.S. military base and port facilities in Honduras. (The plane carrying the kidnapped president of Honduras out of the country, back in June, stopped at the U.S. air base in Soto Cano, Honduras, for refueling. And that was just the beginning of it. After some one hundred anti-coup activists were murdered in Honduras, and thousands beaten up, imprisoned, raped, tortured and threatened, and after a state of martial law for six months, with opposition media shut down, the U.S. just endorsed a farce of an election, run by the Honduran military.)
3. Two new U.S. military bases in Panama.
4. Complete deafness to the leaders of the continent--not just Chavez, but Lula da Silva in Brazil, Michele Batchelet in Chile, Cristina Fernandez in Argentina, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Evo Morales in Bolivia and numerous others, including rightwing leaders like Felipe Calderon in Mexico--as well as the OAS, the Rio Group, the UNASUR, Mercosur and ALBA trade groups, the EU and the UN--on the Honduran coup. And complete deafness to the near universal outcry against the U.S. militarization of Colombia.
It is appalling that one of the few U.S. "good friends" in the region--the one on whom the U.S. is larding $6 BILLION in military aid--is Colombia, a country with one of the worst human rights records on earth, and one of the worst governments and militaries on earth. I believe that Colombia is the linchpin of a Pentagon war plan. The militarization points above--on Obama's watch (massive U.S. military buildup in Colombia, basically the 'South Vietnamzation' of Colombia; new U.S. bases in Panama; securing of U.S. bases in Honduras*)--combined with the Bushwhack reconstitution of the US 4th Fleet in the Caribbean--means that the Pentagon has Venezuela's major oil region, in the north, adjacent to Colombia and the Caribbean, surrounded.
There are many U.S. corporate/war profiteer motives for destroying the huge leftist democracy movement that has swept most of South America and about half of Central America. These include re-imposing "free trade for the rich" where it has been rejected; re-imposing the failed, corrupt, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" where it has been rejected; re-imposing World Bank/IMF rule over Latin American economies (looting of those economies by first world banksters), where that has been rejected, and other such motives. But I think those are all secondary motives for this massive militarization of the region. I think that the Pentagon, at the very least, intends to "circle the wagons" in the Caribbean/Central America/northern South American region, grab control of the oil in Venezuela's and Ecuador's northern provinces, and impose U.S. military control of this region, for the purposes of looting and plunder, and slave labor.
It is notable that one of President Mel Zelaya's most popular policies in Honduras was his doubling of the minimum wage, in this extremely poor country where Chiquita International and U.S. clothing retailers hold sway. It is also notable that one of the rightwing coup generals stated that the purpose of their coup was "to prevent communism from Venezuela reaching the United States." (i.e., decent wages = communism). (--quoted in a report on the coup by the Zelaya government-in-exile). These are all obvious motives for the Obama administration's dreadful policy on Honduras. What is less well known is that President Zelaya proposed converting the U.S. military base in Honduras to a commercial airport. That probably sealed his fate, because that base is a critical component of Pentagon strategy, and Honduras has often, in the past, been the U.S. stepping stool for aggression in the region.
Obama's stated policy of "peace, respect and cooperation" in Latin America has been OVERRULED. Chavez said that Obama is "the prisoner of the Pentagon." That may be a charitable assessment, if what I see coming down the pipe (Vietnam II) is the purpose behind this militarization of Colombia and the region.
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