Cablegate: Media Reaction: Bases in Colombia

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TAGS: OPRC OIIP BR XM XR KMDR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: BASES IN COLOMBIA

"The truth is late, but"

Op-ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (11-5) by senior columnist and
influential commentator Eliane Catanhede says: "....The Pentagon
has just sent another document to Congress saying the same thing:
that said bases [in Colombia] do indeed serve as a foothold in
South America and to keep an eye on countries not so friendly -
such as Venezuela....[The document] has added to the distrust in
Brazil and its neighbors that the focus of American military
expansion in Colombia is not only internal, against the
narco-guerillas, but also external to watch over and control the
region.....It is up to Brazil and to UNASUL to ask Obama and Uribe
three things: 1) Is the U.S. military presence in Colombia intended
as a threat against Venezuela?, 2) Where are the 'formal
guarantees' Lula has requested of Uribe and Obama that their aims
do not overstep borders?, 3) Are Washington and Bogota making fools
of us?"
White

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