"Latin Americans are increasingly saying "No" to the US military bases that are spread through the region. The Pentagon uses vassal states in Central America -- Honduras and El Salvador -- as bases for drug-war surveillance, police training, helicopter sorties, and military-run charity programs. And Colombia, a key ally in the region, receives more military equipment and training than the rest of the hemisphere combined.

But US influence in the region is declining, and the US military presence is perceived as protecting a failed economic model. Instead of militarizing relations and building for...

"Latin Americans are increasingly saying "No" to the US military bases that are spread through the region. The Pentagon uses vassal states in Central America -- Honduras and El Salvador -- as bases for drug-war surveillance, police training, helicopter sorties, and military-run charity programs. And Colombia, a key ally in the region, receives more military equipment and training than the rest of the hemisphere combined.

But US influence in the region is declining, and the US military presence is perceived as protecting a failed economic model. Instead of militarizing relations and building fortresses, the US should address the reasons why majorities throughout the region are turning against US-led models.

The widespread US military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean has a long history. Bases resulted from and facilitated the hundreds of US interventions to protect corporate property, coups, occupations, threats by gunboats, and other uses of force since the mid-1800s. Panama was carved out of Colombia in order to build the canal, with a series of bases and forts. In addition to protecting the canal, US bases there served for training Latin American armies, preparing US troops for jungle warfare in World War II and the Vietnam War, testing military equipment, including chemical weapons and preventing leftist forces from either winning or consolidating power in Central America.

Widespread Withdrawal

Revulsion toward US unilateralism and the torture methods used and taught by US officials is leading to withdrawal from some US-run military programs, such as the US School of the Americas (relocated from Panama in 1984) now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).

Bases set up in Puerto Rico and Ecuador, partly as a result of the closure of bases in Panama, are already closed or soon will be. The grassroots movement of civil disobedience, culture, and political action to stop the [url=http://www.forusa.o...

Widespread Withdrawal

Revulsion toward US unilateralism and the torture methods used and taught by US officials is leading to withdrawal from some US-run military programs, such as the US School of the Americas (relocated from Panama in 1984) now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).

Bases set up in Puerto Rico and Ecuador, partly as a result of the closure of bases in Panama, are already closed or soon will be. The grassroots movement of civil disobedience, culture, and political action to stop the naval bombing in Vieques, Puerto Rico unified a colonized society otherwise fractured by attitudes towards relations with US.

Ecuador bowed out of hosting a multinational naval exercise last year, and several Latin American nations have refused to sign agreements that would exempt US soldiers from prosecution in the International Criminal Court.

Argentina even led a multinational military exercise in October 2006 "to recover an airport that has fallen under the control of an extra-continental power, being used to fly in and deploy troops into the area." The US is the only such power with the capacity and political wherewithal to fly in troops in such an operation. Paraguayan soldiers participated in the exercise, dubbed "Operation Brotherhood".