Foreign Military Support and the invasion process of the United States in Colombia

Most Brigades of the Colombian Army receive military aid from the USA.

In addition units of Military Intelligence in Medellín, Bogota and Villavicencio received US funding. Various military radars are operated by US personnel, in addition to those operated by the Colombian Armed Forces. Seven military bases are operated in cooperation. This military cooperation should be seen in the context of US Direct Foreign Investment for “economic development” - in short, maintaining the status quo for the elites.

The history of the civil and military relation between Colombia and the USA for the last 20 years can be summarised as: Military cooperation, military training for high-ranking officers in the School the Americas, loans for war, administration of military intelligence and the development of infrastructure, support to small military units and advice in war plans like with the case of El Patriota, tax exemption and legal guarantees to US corporations, for them to invest and exploit natural resources, commercial agreements between both countries, fight against terrorism and offering of Colombian military bases to the US military, companies and personnel for foreign intelligence.

US security and defence corporations in Colombia includeLockheed-Martin and Dyncorp, which work to make profit from armed conflicts, as a way of imposing the neoliberal project, against social resistance and the rights of people to the environment.

Grupo de OxC Accionando Resistiendo Transformando

Notes:

1) The radars began to be installed after a February 1989 agreement between the USA and Colombia. In 1990 there were already radars in Leticia and Araracuara, Amazonas; Caqueta; Marandua (Guainia) y Vichada (“Drug War in the Skies”, Drugs and Democracy Programme, Transnational Institute, 1999). At present, there is one at the Palanquero Base (Cundinamarca) according to Teo Ballvé (http://nacla.org/node/4736 and there is another one en Tres Esquinas which became official in 2001, this can be the one named since the1990s as Caqueta, for more information http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=1912. In the same line, Colombia has on top of the radars already mentioned, four military radars located in Turbo (Antioquia), San Jose del Guaviare (Guaviare), La Guajira (Riohacha) y San Andres, go to http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/justicia/colombia-toma-el-control-de-ci.