Pubdate: Sat, 02 Mar 2002 Source: Khaleej Times (UAE) Copyright: 2002 Khaleej Times Contact: http://khaleejtimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/996 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia EYE ON LATIN AMERICA US MILITARY intervention in Colombia's four-decades-old civil war was initiated nearly two years ago by the Clinton administration with a $1.3 billion emergency military aid package dubbed Plan Colombia. The plan was justified in the name of waging a "war on drugs". In the aftermath of September 11, the Bush administration has decided to dramatically expand US military involvement in the South American country. As in Afghanistan, the escalation is being carried out under the banner of the struggle against terrorism, but critics say its real objectives centre on securing US corporate control over the region's strategic oil reserves. Even as it prepares to intervene in a more direct military fashion in Colombia, Washington is turning up the heat on the populist government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the third-largest exporter of petroleum to the US market. Earlier this month, the administration unveiled plans for the creation of a special 2,000-4,000-member 'Critical Infrastructure Brigade' of the Colombian army that would be deployed to protect US-owned oil installations. Specifically, it would be assigned to guard a nearly 500-mile pipeline that carries oil belonging to Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The pipeline has been a frequent target of guerrilla bombing attacks. The White House has asked Congress to approve $98 million in the 2003 budget for training, arming and supplying US air support for the Colombian pipeline troops. The funding is on top of $731 million that the administration is seeking "to support anti-drug activities, economic development and the strengthening of democratic institutions" in South America. According to Press reports, the Bush administration is planning to funnel another $1 billion in military supplies and training to the Colombian military. It was no accident that the California-based petroleum company and the now bankrupt Enron, which carved out extensive natural gas holdings in Colombia, were among the biggest backers of Plan Colombia and the military aid package. To go by the assessment of critics of Bush's foreign policy, just as US forces intervened in the Gulf and Central Asia to assert American hegemony over the oil supplies of those regions, now it is South America's turn. Already, Colombia and its oil-producing neighbours, Venezuela and Ecuador, export more oil to the US than all the Gulf countries combined. While Colombian oil exports to the US are not decisive for the US economy today, Washington is looking to the region from the standpoint of its strategic objective of diversifying its sources of petroleum supplies. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth