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Headlines : InternationalMilitary to Aid Latin America
There are changes taking place, with no public debate, that are removing the State Department from the foreign-security assistance programme and making 40 years worth of human rights and democracy legislation irrelevant.
As the Pentagon ups the ante in its definition of ‘security threats’, the abdication of the State Department and Congress on control of ‘aid’ funding to the Defense Department is serving ominous notice on Latin America that Plan Colombia was only a preface.
[Posted By remarcus]Republished from Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (IPS) – U.S. aid in Latin America is becoming increasingly militarised, according to a new report, which warns that both the U.S. Congress and the State Department are losing control over Washington’s assistance to the region as more of it is channeled through the Pentagon.
The report, “Erasing the Lines”, is the latest in an annual series on trends in U.S. military programmes in Latin America published since 1997 by three Washington-based human-rights and foreign-policy groups — the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF), and the Centre for International Policy (CIP).
It identifies 10 specific trends that it says are effectively reducing civilian control — both here and in Latin America — over the region’s military and security forces, and that have intensified over the past year.
“The Defence Department is expanding its control over foreign military training programmes that were once the exclusive province of the Department of State, lessening congressional oversight, and weakening the relationship between military assistance and foreign policy goals,” according to the report.
And, because more aid is being channeled directly through the Pentagon, a growing number of economic and social trends — including the rise of populism…
Posted by remarcus
seems that at an early age i was hatched into this dream of awareness only to find that i was just a reflection of what i percieved myself to be... from there was when the *confusion* started
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Posted by senssensibilityr on Wednesday, December 14th 2005
CAFTA has a lock on Central America. Those people are being buried alive by predatory capitalism and they’re going to be the last out of the oubliette.
There’s a nice piece Upside Down World on what it’s like to be Mayan in Guatamala .
Evo may or may not take Bolivia back this year but it’s going to happen. As far as drug dealers go, he isn’t quite up to the standard of the drug dealers the US MIC is accustomed to supporting. Like Noriega in Panama (who got “arrested” for refusing to support US aggressions in Nicaragua) and Peru’s Montessori (currently in the brink awaiting trial).
Who wants US MIC military aid in Latin America? Who will even put up with it? Colombia. Period. Uribe & Co. Right now talks are coming down in Cuba between the rebel group ELN and Uribe’s crowd. ELN’s Antonio Garcia is a big fan of Hugo’s. What do you think of that? “The neoliberal model is depleted, but new bottom-up alternatives have been emerging to overcome crisis. President Chávez embodies such new ideas,” is how he put it to Agence France Presse.
Here Uribe “listening” in the background. I guess we know what he’s thinking.
Drug dealing, violence and crime, in general, in Latin America, is a direct result of IMF SAPs. And since Marcos blew the lid off in 94 more and more people are getting clear on that. There’s no going back. There just ain’t.
“hmm”, says General John Smith, “is that a threat?”
“aid” is a euphemism for “arm”
the us military is in paraguay, preparing for assaults. something big is going down.
Paraguay is not in their lap though. FARC is in the mix now. Uribe is negotiating with FARC. Wow.
The thing to keep in mind is ye olde dialectical materialism – that actions create equal but opposite reactions which then form a compromise – keep the focus fuzzy, bien entendu. Predatory capitalists are not going to stand by and watch while the people before profits people wake up and move a lot of pieces.
But if they can’t do anything else – they’ll make a lot of noise. Look at the US economy, look at their genocidal approach to Peak Oil, look at the threats of Climate Change. Look at what’s happening in Hong Kong, what happened in Cancun and Seattle. Not just from the point of view of the anti-globalisation movement but the stands currently being taken by places like Brazil and India.