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Jerrell WhiteheadCritics of Colombia President Álvaro Uribe's decision to sign the accord say it is 'unbalanced' for Colombia. Far-left and moderate leaders alike have expressed concerns about an increasing US presence in the region.
Colombia signed a controversial military cooperation pact with the United States Friday that will expand US access to Colombian military bases to conduct operations aimed at combating drug trafficking and leftist rebels.
Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez, who "froze" diplomatic relations with Colombia in August over the pending pact, has said it could set the stage for a US invasion into Venezuelan territory. More moderate regional leaders in Brazil and Chile have also expressed concern over the intentions of the agreement.
The US government has already appropriated $46 million to fund the new arrangement. Most will go to refurbish the Palanquero Air Force base near Bogotá. Colombia has received around $6 billion in aid since 2000 under Plan Colombia, a broad program to fight the double scourges of drug trafficking and rebel insurgents.
US and Colombian officials have said the new agreement is in many ways an extension of Plan Colombia. It maintains the cap of 800 military personnel and 600 civilian contractors permitted in Colombia and any given time.
US operations from the Colombian bases are aimed in part to replace the surveillance capabilities lost when Ecuador refused to renew Washington's lease on the base at Manta, which served as a center for tracking drug-trafficking vessels in the Pacific.
Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva, who was in Washington this week, putting the final touches on the accord, said that the agreement "has no geopolitical or strategic connotation, other than being more effective in the fight against drug trafficking."
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