{"id":63625,"date":"2015-09-14T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=63625"},"modified":"2015-09-13T20:18:38","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T19:18:38","slug":"the-us-and-the-militarization-of-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/09\/the-us-and-the-militarization-of-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The US and the Militarization of Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States is countering the independent development of Latin American countries by using its military power and influence.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"military<\/a><\/p>\n

2 Sep 2015 – <\/em>For more than two centuries, the United States has viewed Latin America as its \u201cbackyard,\u201d a geopolitical sphere of influence where it acts as undisputed hegemon. The history of the Western hemisphere, broadly speaking, reflects this reality as theU.S. has influenced, dominated, and otherwise controlled the political and economic development of most of the countries of Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

However, recent years have borne witness to a growing independence and assertiveness from many nations in the region, owing in no small part to the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Indeed, with Venezuela as the exemplar, and Chavez as the initiator of the process of regional integration and collective security, Latin America has grown increasingly independent of its imperial neighbor to the north.<\/p>\n

And it is precisely\u00a0this political, economic, and cultural independence that the U.S. has moved to counteract in the most effective way it can: militarily. Using pretexts ranging from the \u201cWar on Drugs\u201d to humanitarian assistance, and the \u201cWar on Terror,\u201d the U.S. seeks to regain its military foothold in the region, and thereby maintain and further its hegemony.<\/p>\n

The Silent Invasion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The deployment of U.S. military forces throughout Central and South America calls to mind the dark days of U.S. imperialism in the region, when Washington installed client regimes and fascist dictatorships for the purpose\u00a0of controlling the political and economic development of nations that might otherwise have pursued the path of socialism and independence. And it is the memory of those years that is immediately evoked when one critically examines what the U.S. is doing militarily.<\/p>\n

In Central America, U.S. military forces have penetrated key countries under the pretext of counter-narcotics operations. In Honduras for example, the U.S. has played a key role in supporting, advising and directing the military of the right-wing government that took control of the country after the 2009 coup, supported by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration. As the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) reported:<\/p>\n

The steady increase of U.S. assistance to [Honduran] armed forces [is] an indicator of tacit U.S. support. But the U.S. rolein militarization of national police forces has been direct as well \u2026 The US [DEA] Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team (FAST) \u2026 set up camp in Honduras to train a local counternarcotics police unit and help plan and execute drug interdiction operations \u2026 these operations were nearly indistinguishable from military missions\u00a0\u2026 According to\u00a0the New York Times, five \u201ccommando style squads\u201d of FAST teams have been deployed across Central America to train and support local counternarcotics units \u2026 In July 2013, the Honduran government created a new \u201celite\u201d police unit called the Intelligence Troop and Special Security Group, or TIGRES (Spanish for \u201ctigers\u201d). The unit, which human rights groups contend is military in nature, has been deployed in tandem with the new military police force and has received training in military combat tactics from both U.S. and Colombian Special Forces units.<\/em><\/p>\n

The deployment of this sort of combination of military, paramilitary, and militarized law enforcement is indicative of the U.S. strategy for re-militarizing the region. Rather than simply overt military occupation, Washington \u201cprovides assistance\u201d in the form of military aid. This is further demonstrated by the recent announcement of a contingent of U.S. Marines deployed to Honduras, ostensibly to help with relief efforts during hurricane season.<\/p>\n

Such deployments keep with recent U.S. initiatives to further penetrate these countries militarily, using small contingents of troops and Special Forces. In 2013, it was reported that in Colombia, former commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command William McRaven, \u201csought the authority to deploy [Special Operations Forces] teams to countries without consulting either U.S. ambassadors there or even the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) \u2026 McRaven\u2019s command even tried to work out an agreement with Colombia to set up a regional special operations coordination centre there without consulting SOUTHCOM or the embassy.\u201d In fact, under McRaven Special Forces troop deployments ballooned to more than 65,000, with many spread throughout LatinAmerica.<\/p>\n

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Check out this new article by Dawn Marie Paley! It's kind of like a shorter version of #DrugWarCapitalism<\/a>. http:\/\/t.co\/4gdczPn0yZ<\/a><\/p>\n

— Peace & Justice Cntr (@PJCVermont) June 4, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n