What is the U.S. Military Doing in Paraguay?

August 31st, 2005 at 11:33 Björn Hallberg

Paraguay’s President Says There Will Be No U.S. Military Base in His Country

Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte on Tuesday denied published reports that his country plans to authorize the installation of a U.S. military base in its territory.

“There will be no North American military base nor other installation with that characteristic, because we are a sovereign country,” Duarte said during a joint press conference with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos in the first day of a two-day visit to Chile. ”

The reports surfaced in the local and South American media after a visit to Paraguay by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this year. Duarte said that 37 American soldiers now in Paraguay are conducting a medical aid program in a remote area.

What is the U.S. Military Doing in Paraguay?

The U.S. military is conducting secretive operations in Paraguay and reportedly building a new base there. Human rights groups and military analysts in the region believe trouble is brewing. However, the U.S. embassy in Paraguay denies the base exists and describes the military activity as routine. According to an article in the Bolivian newspaper, El Deber, a U.S. base is being developed in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia. The base will permit the landing of large aircraft and is capable of housing up to 16,000 troops. A contingent of 500 U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay on July 1st with planes, weapons, equipment and ammunition.

If history is any lesson, Paraguayans are right to be wary. Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ), a human rights group in the country, warned that the terms of the deal struck between the U.S. and Paraguay are “very dangerous to us, especially taking into account that it was U.S. soldiers who taught torture and other forms of human rights violations in courses at the School of the Americas under the National Security Doctrine.”

It seems the US can’t quite let go of Bolivia. And as noted, Paraguay is the only country in the vicinity to grant immunity to the U.S. military. You can’t really blame poorer nations for accepting US financial aid, even if it has a dark side that will most likely consume the entire region. As it stands, Bolivia seems unlikely to go with the so called global agenda in terms of privatization. They’re still in the “gap” as Thomas Barnett would remind us. Because obviously, globalization is really about opening up to a takeover by US corporations. Like in this case the gas industry. It’s not just about the US being able to acquire gas and oil from SA nations, no, the point is that the companies that extract the resources preferably have to be US owned as well so that you rake in more profit and suck the nation in question dry. Plus the obvious geopolitical implications of being able to control who gets to buy those resources. If you get greater equality or whatever in the process is just secondary. But the latter is often touted as the reason for “going global” and the reason why “gap” countries don’t do it. According to the propagandists, most gap nations are afraid of women gaining greater equality. And in the next breath they admit they couldn’t care less about their wellbeing per se, only that they join the work force and start producing cheap products for us in the west asap. It’s really cynical. No one can argue that entering the work force doesn’t do wonders for equality, but as if the globalists really care about that. Especially when they later conclude that making gap nations fall in line may require military intervention. But hey, “it’s a price WE feel is worth paying …” The bottom line of course being that US companies have saturated the market and need new venues. It’s the same mechanism that has driven US intervention for over 100 years and the very same idea that spurred European imperialism before that. Superfluous money and superfluous people in a sense.

The question is why no one takes notice, why no one cares that this is about to happen. Why there is no international agency to send observers and come down on the US like a ton of bricks if the fears above are substantiated. The UN ought to have reconnaissance teams that do this type of detective work. That travel around the world and map events as they happen. Not after. Teams that effectively match Washington’s pre-emptiveness, understand the true scope of events and aren’t embarrassed by the fact. Perhaps that would be a good idea if one were ever to go into business for oneself. Seeing as so many private security companies have lined up behind the US.

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