‘Gunboat diplomacy on steroids’: US signs security deals across Latin America | US military
KWhile all eyes are on the four-month-long U.S. military campaign against Venezuela, the White House has been quietly making security agreements with other countries to deploy U.S. troops to Latin America and the Caribbean.
While Donald Trump announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers and ordered the seizure of ships during airstrikes that killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean and Pacific, the United States signed military agreements with Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago just last week.
Agreements ranging from airport access to temporary deployment of US troops, as in Trinidad and Tobago joint operations This agreement, signed in Paraguay against “narco-terrorists” – under the banner of the so-called “war on drugs” – is the same logic that Washington uses to justify its aggression against Venezuela; but White House officials and Trump himself have said the goals also include seizing the nation’s vast supply of drugs. energy reserves and overthrowing dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Although Washington has long maintained similar agreements in the region, the scale and timing of the new agreements are seen by analysts as a development that will escalate further in an environment where the United States will invade a South American country in an unprecedented manner.
“If the United States were to launch a larger attack that included air strikes against Venezuela or other countries like Colombia or Cuba, it would want operating sites around the region,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at the Defense Priorities think tank.
“Establishing a network of locations will be important to the sustainability of any operations. So we cannot be sure that these activities are directly aimed at Venezuela, but it would be naive to suggest that they are not somehow connected,” he added.
Recent agreements include “interim” agreements distribution Sending US air force troops to Ecuador despite Ecuadorians rejected the establishment of foreign military bases in the referendum and decision At the request of the White House, the Peruvian Congress authorized US military and intelligence personnel to conduct armed operations in the country.
“And it has nothing to do with drugs,” said Jorge Heine, a former ambassador to Chile and a research professor at Boston University’s School of Global Studies. “Paraguay is not considered a major center for drug production or distribution, nor is Venezuela. This has more to do with drug production.” US national security strategy document,” he added.
Dubbed the “Trump Corollary” of the Monroe Doctrine, an “America for Americans” foreign policy laid out by US president James Monroe in 1823 and later used to legitimize US-backed military coups in Latin America, the recently released document calls for an “expansion” of the US military presence in the region.
In the Caribbean, after Trinidad and Tobago allowed the installation of a US radar system and access to its airports, the Maduro regime accused its Caribbean neighbor of taking part in the seizure of its first oil tanker two weeks ago and announced the immediate termination of any agreement between the two countries on fossil gas supplies.
Last week, Trinidad and Tobago prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the “best defense” for her country was military cooperation with the United States. On Monday, Venezuelan interior minister Diosdado Cabello said: “If Trinidad lends its territory to attack Venezuela, we have to respond.”
Only in recent months have similar agreements been signed with the United States. Guyana, Dominican Republic And PanamaOther countries in the region have already been drawn into a military buildup against Venezuela through existing US bases in Puerto Rico, Honduras and Cuba, and surveillance centers at airports in El Salvador, Aruba and Curaçao.
John Walsh, director of drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, described the new US strategy as “battleship diplomacy on steroids” aimed at rewarding allies and sending a warning to those who oppose the Trump administration.
In a letter to other presidents in Latin America and the Caribbean on Monday, Maduro issued an “urgent appeal” against what he called the “escalation of aggression” by the United States… whose effects extend beyond the borders of my country and threaten to destabilize the entire region.
Since being re-elected last year in a vote thought to be fraudulent, the Venezuelan dictator has had almost no contact with other presidents in the region; these include former allies such as Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro (two of the few remaining left-wing leaders following a wave of right-wing election victories). Lula stood aside, facing 50 percent import tariffs before relations thaw, and Petro is threatened as the next US target after Maduro.
“For countries not on board, U.S. gunboat diplomacy is a veiled threat that the U.S. military is just around the corner, ensuring they don’t overtake the United States,” Walsh said.
