Clinton Defends Colombia Bases Accord Chavez Declared A Threat
“This is a continuation of a partnership that we believe, and the Colombians believe, has helped to make life better for the people of Colombia,” Clinton said yesterday after meeting Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez at the State Department. “Theres nothing more than that.”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said last week his country “feels threatened” by the bases plan.
The agreement facilitates U.S. access to three Colombian air force bases, located at Palanquero, Apiay and Malambo. The accord also permits access to two naval bases and two army installations, and other Colombian military facilities if mutually accepted. All these military sites will remain under Colombian control, the State Department said.
“It is certainly a bilateral agreement with very clear recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Clinton added. Bermudez concurred with that view, adding that the accord also adheres to “the principle of nonintervention.”
Clinton praised the Colombian leadership “for what they have done against a really ruthless enemy” of narcotics trafficking.
The U.S. and Colombia reached a provisional defense cooperation agreement on Aug. 14.
Venezuela Threat
Chavez said last month he would “freeze” relations with Colombia over its plans to allow the U.S. to use the bases. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will attend an Aug. 28 meeting of the 12-member Union of South American Nations in Bariloche, Argentina, to discuss the matter.
The agreement doesnt permit the establishment of any U.S. base in Colombia. “It ensures continued U.S. access to specific agreed Colombian facilities in order to undertake mutually agreed upon activities within Colombia,” the State Department said.
Under the accord, the permitted level of U.S. military and civilian personnel wouldnt change from levels set in 2004, the State Department said. The U.S. can send as many as 800 military personnel and 600 civilian contractors. The actual numbers in recent years have averaged half or less of those limits, according to a U.S. fact sheet.
The agreement “does not signal, anticipate, or authorize an increase in the presence of U.S. military or civilian personnel in Colombia,” the State Department said.
The U.S. is expected to invest more than $46 million in the seven bases in Colombia to patrol the Pacific waters for drug trafficking, according to General Freddy Padilla, head of Colombias armed forces. The bases will help replace facilities the U.S. had in Ecuador.
The U.S. approached the Colombian government about using its bases after Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa last year said he wouldnt renew a 10-year lease for the U.S. military to use the Manta Airfield, where as many as 475 troops were stationed.
“We want to have agreements with Brazil, with the entire South American continent,” Uribe said. “It would be good if the defense council of South America could quickly integrate with countries that want to help, like the U.S.”
Diplomatic relations among Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador have been strained since last year when a cross-border raid by Colombia into Ecuador uncovered computer files from the second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The files suggested that Venezuela supplied them with weapons and money.
Colombia is the source of 80 percent of cocaine in the U.S., according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The U.S. has given Colombia more than $6 billion in anti- drug and military aid since 2000 under Plan Colombia, and is working on an accord to operate anti-drug surveillance flights from Colombian bases.