http://lo-de-alla.org/2012/07/new-bases-old-interests/
*New bases, old interests* *Establishment of military bases in Chile and Peru reveals United States intention to increase influence in the region* [Translation of an article from *Brasil de Fato* of São Paulo for July 5. See original here <http://www.brasildefato.com.br/node/10029>and related articles here<http://lo-de-alla.org/2012/07/a-serious-threat-from-the-rio-bravo-to-patagonia/>and here<http://lo-de-alla.org/2012/05/us-establishes-new-military-bases-in-south-america/> .] by Patrícia Benvenuti The hope for new relations between the United States and Latin America continues to be ever more distant. Recent activity, in particular the establishment of new military bases, reveals an attempt by the United States to increase its influence in the region. On April 5, work on the Personnel Training Center for Peace Operations in Urban Zones was completed in Chile. Located at Fort Aguayo, in Concón, in the Valparaíso Region, the base was constructed in 60 days, considered a record time for this kind of project. The structure consists of eight buildings, which simulate a small city. The cost of the base, financed by the Southern Command of the United States armed forces, was almost 500,000 dollars. The Center will be used for training the so-called Peace Forces of Latin American nations that are part of United Nations missions. In Peru, the governor of the Department of Piura, in the north of the country, has already handed over to representatives of the U.S. Southern Command a two-hectare site for construction of the new Emergency Operations Center for Piura, the capital of the department. According to reports in the local press, representatives of the Southern Command are now conducting a study and predict that the center will be ready by July. The project should have a cost of 500,000 dollars. The two new units make for a total of 49 foreign military bases in Latin America, according to a survey by the Centro de Estudios y Documentación sobre Miltarización. Another United States base was planned for Argentina but the plan was not carried out. The objective was to install an emergency center in a building on the edge of the airport of the city of Resistencia, capital of the province of Chaco, in the northeast of the country. The permit for building the center had already been granted by local authorities of the province of Chaco. Meanwhile, the plan was rejected by the national government, which, after several protests by social organizations, ordered the suspension of negotiations. *Continuing policy* The installation of the new bases is viewed with concern by Nilda Ouriques, a professor in the Department of Economics and International Relations of the UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) and a member of the Instituto de Estudios Latino Americanos. He believes the development shows that the president of the United States, Barack Obama, is continuing an imperialist policy for the region. No one expands military bases in order to strengthen relations of solidarity and friendship, he warns. That opinion is shared by Pablo Ruiz, who belongs to the Equipo Latinoamericano Observatorio de la Escuela de las Américas (School of the Americas Watch). In the beginning we had hopes for Obama, especially when he said that he wanted to have a relationship of respect with our continent. But the hopes ended long ago, he says. *Militarization* The establishment of U.S. military bases in Latin America is not a new phenomenon, as Igor Fuser, professor of journalism at the Faculdade Cáspar Líbero, reminds us. During the 1970s and 1980s, however, there was no need for a strong military presence, since the national governments themselves, in power through coups détat, advanced the interests of the United States in the region. Its strength continued through the 1990s with the election of neoliberal governments sympathetic to the country. Receptiveness to the United States began to crumble with the rise of progressive governments like that of Hugo Chávez in 1998, a phenomenon that spread to other countries beginning in the decade of 2000. Along with that came the failure of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. At that time, according to the Cásper Líbero professor, the bases appeared as a solution. The United States perceived a lack of a more effective instrument to guarantee its political and economic interests in the region. The solution they found was to intensify direct military presence in Latin America, Fuser declares. An event symbolic of the increase in militarization, he states, was reactivation of the United States Fourth Fleet in 2008. Formed in 1943, during the Second World War, to counter Nazi aggression, the unit had been deactivated in 1950. *Brazil and its resources* Among the United States several interests in the region, the control of natural resources seems one of the most important. This is why Uruguayan journalist Raúl Zibechi believes Brazil has turned into a major target of this new offensive. With a hold on the riches of the Amazon, Brazil became an even more attractive country with the discovery of the pre-salt layer [large deep petroleum and natural gas deposits off the Brazilian coast]. With it, he believes, the tendency is for the placement of the bases from now on to tend to surround Brazil. Things get complicated with the pre-salt and the navy begins to have a more important role than before, he says. In this sense, Fuser declares, Brazil should adopt a firm position of repudiation of the bases, not only to protect its natural resources but also in solidarity with its neighbors. The view of an integrated South America, which Brazil supports, includes as an essential point the full affirmation of sovereignty. A country cannot be fully sovereign if it has a foreign military base established on its territory, he says. *Consequences* The countries where the new bases are expected are already afraid of the consequences of militarization. In Chile, the installation of the base has generated protests by several organizations. In a letter sent to Minister of Defense Andrés Allamand, human rights commissions, groups of families of the assassinated, intellectuals and social movements declare that the United States does not have the moral authority to teach peace operations. The main fear is that the base will be used to counter the social demonstrations that have been held in the past few years on Chilean territory, organized by students and defenders of human rights. In Peru, the main result of the installation of the new military unit is likely to be intensification of the so-called war on drugs. The Piura base, according to Peruvian analyst Guillermo Burneo, will have an objective similar to that of the Manta air base in Ecuador. Deactivated in 2008 through a decision by President Rafael Correa, the structure had as its official objective combating drug trafficking in the region. With an increase in repression of drug trafficking, Burneo argues, the United States can promote its weapons market something that becomes especially important now, considering the economic crisis the United States is experiencing. To give training to our armies is a way of subjecting us to their logistics and what that implies is the buying of weapons, Burneo declares. 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