6 October 2004
BRAZIL-US DIPLOMACY: Powell travels to Brasilia
BLURRING THE LINES: Report fears armies are carrying out civilian work
COLOMBIA: General Hill uses retirement speech to criticise Venezuela
CORRUPTION: Nicaragua, Peru sign up for anti-corruption initiative
NARCO-TERRORISM: Interpol to work more closely with Mexican authorities
BRAZIL-US DIPLOMACY
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, arrived in Brazil on 4 October for
a two-day visit to strengthen US relations with the government of President
Lula da Silva. According to Powell, the relations between both countries are
becoming 'stronger' and the Bush administration has an interest in driving forward
the 'good relationship' with the Brazilian government. After a meeting with
Lula and the Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorim, in Brasília on 5 October,
Powell said Brazil was 'a solid candidate' for a permanent seat on the UN Security
Council. Powell praised the 'significant role' Brazil is playing to stabilise
the continent, referring to its leadership of the UN stabilisation force in
Haiti, and Venezuela, where Brazil supported the democratic referendum on Hugo
Chávez 's government. According to Powell, the country is an 'important and serious'
candidate for the seat because of its strategic position and leadership in trade
issues. Powell also said that the US administration 'trusts' that the Brazilian
nuclear programme does not have military objectives. The Brazilian reluctance
to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to look
at the country's 'special centrifugal technology' was one key issue that Powell
addressed. However it seems Powell was satisfied with Amorim's explanation that
Brazil is not hiding its nuclear programme but that it preferred to 'safeguard
for the moment' its atomic technology. Powell said the issue should be 'resolved'
between Brazil and the IAEA but the US was not 'preoccupied'. Another crucial
issue that Powell touched upon was the reopening of FTAA negotiations in 2005.
According to Powell there are some 'short-term difficulties' such as agricultural
subsidies but these are 'only natural'.
BLURRING THE LINES
A new joint publication entitled Blurring the Lines was released on 5 October
by the Latin America Working Group (LAWG), the Washington Office on Latin America
(WOLA), and the Center for International Policy (CIP). The central contention
of the report was that US policy in Latin America is 'blurring' distinctions
between military and civilian roles in the region with the result that the military
ends up playing too active a role. 'US military programs are strongly encouraging
Latin American militaries to carry out internal roles that civilians can fill,
such as crime fighting, road building and protecting the environment,' the report
said. The most worrying aspect of the military's involvement in 'internal duties',
according to the report, is the potential for 'politicising the armed forces
which in turn leads the military to use (or threaten to use) its monopoly of
arms whenever it disagrees with the civilian consensus. Utilizing the armed
forces in police roles can lead to excessive use of force. Too often in Latin
America, when armies have focused on an internal enemy, the definition of enemies
has included political opponents of the regime in power_' the report concludes.
COLOMBIA
On 5 October the head of the US Southern Command, General James Hill said on
his last visit to Colombia that the US would continue to support the country
in its war against leftist guerrillas, calling them 'the incarnation of hatred,
ignorance and intolerance.' Speaking in Bogotá, Hill, who retires next month,
said 'I have a tremendous degree of realistic optimism about what the Colombian
military can accomplish […] So we will stay the course and the American people
[...] will assist the Colombian people in ways that are necessary to win the
war.' Hill also took the opportunity to chastise Venezuela for failing to contribute
to the war against guerrilla groups that funded themselves through drug-trafficking.
The general said that Colombia's other neighbours such as Ecuador, Brazil, Peru
and Panama were helping and he expressed hope that Venezuela would too one day.
Hill was presented with the Antonio Narino Medal, the highest order of merit
given by the Colombian military, by Colombia's defence minister Jorge Alberto
Uribe. Hill will be replaced by Lieutenant General Bantz Craddock, who is currently
serving as senior military adviser to the US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.
CORRUPTION
On 5 October the US announced that Nicaragua, Peru, Georgia and Nigeria had
joined forces with the G-8 to fight corruption in order to strengthen transparency,
development and democracy. In a press conference Alan Larson, the US subsecretary
of state for economic affairs, pointedly avoided commenting on the scandal that
has embroiled the president of the Organization of American States, Miguel Angel
Rodríguez. Larson also said that the extradition of former Peruvian president
Alberto Fujimori from Tokyo to Lima was a matter for the governments of Peru
and Japan. Instead, Larson and Earl Wayne, from the office of economic affairs
and trade at the state department, announced that the US would give financial
and technical assistance to those four countries to help them fight corruption.
NARCO-TERRORISM
The US acknowledged on 5 October that dismantling the links between terrorist
and drug-trafficking organisations is an 'area in which we need cooperation
with Interpol and with many other countries in the region'. Speaking in Cancún
at a meeting of Interpol and the US department of homeland security, Michael
Garcia, who works for both organisations, mentioned specifically that the US
needs to 'do a lot of work with the Mexican authorities'. He added, 'We have
specific cases which involve the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia
(FARC) in drug-trafficking in Miami, Florida and we see this as a real threat
to the internal security of the US.'