US military to set up in Colombia

Hylton: Rest of South America has reason to be alarmed by future US military presence on Colombian bases

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With the hemisphere fixated on the coup d'etat in Honduras, the Colombian military announced it would be opening up some of its military bases to be shared with the US military. This caused immediate condemnation from the leadership of Colombia's neighbors, Ecuador and Venezuela. Forrest Hylton, expert on Colombian affairs, believes that the two countries are justified in their reservations about the move, given the potential the base offers and the recent history of US surveillance activity in the region. On the other end, Hylton points out some discomforting activities in the Colombian military, an institution that is the fifth largest recipient of US military aid. With the US now seeking even deeper ties with that same military, Hylton concludes that "Colombia's increasing violations of human rights in its pursuit of counter-insurgency, doesn't seem to have any impact on the flow of US aid."

Bio

Forrest Hylton teaches history and politics at the Universidad de los Andes (Bogota). He is the author of Evil Hour in Colombia (Verso, 2006), and with Sinclair Thomson, co-author of Revolutionary Horizons: Past and Present in Bolivian Politics (Verso, 2007). He has contributed to New Left Review, NACLA Report on the Americas, and CounterPunch, and his short fiction and translations have appeared in the Brooklyn Rail. His first novel, Vanishing Acts: A Tragedy, which won the Ben Reitman Award from CityWorks Press, is forthcoming in 2010.

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dart 2009-07-28

The logic of Obama`s Honduran coup looks to be confirmed.We must ignore his election pledges conecrning Columbian Human rights especially for the trade unionists.Uribe is of course the empire`s latest son of a bitch distinguished by his medal of freedom awarded him along with `blood on his hands blair`( a title bestowed on him by Whitehall government precinct).Both criminals are stooges of the genocidist Bush and family.Obama fits the imperialist role as smoothly as nat king cole but lacks his human dignity and like Blair he hit the ground lying when assumed Bush`s script.Expect drug output to soar and mindless columbian killers to be contracted to Afg./Pak..The american way.

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