By Manuel E. Yepe
A CubaNews translation.Edited by Walter Lippmann.
In light of the recent and ongoing military activities of the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean, there are increasing reasons to question the claim that --because of the crisis over Ukraine, Syria and the suspension of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians-- the region has lost importance in the imperial strategic design of the superpower.
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has just visited Guatemala after participating in the Second Conference of Defense Ministers of North America which was held in Mexico.
Mexico's armed forces had been hosting the "Chimaltlalli 2014," international competition, a military training contest for cadets of the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico held on the premises of the Heroico Colegio Militar de México.
With advice from the U.S. Southern Command, special force units of the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Forces held an air and sea military simulation assault exercise on the supposed headquarters of a drug lord. It was announced that this exercise was part of a larger month-long training exercise designed to strengthen the response capability of the local authorities against terrorist activities.
The "Bravo" joint assault force of the Southern Command, based in Honduras, along with the U.S. Army 7th Special Forces Group, executed a very peculiar training session at Lake Yojoa. While the helicopter pilots practiced their overwater operations exercising their capacity to operate at low altitude, the members of the strike force practiced jumping from helicopters at a height of ten feet above water.
In Belize, in the same Central American region, the "New Horizons 14" exercise took place (a continuation of a similar exercise held in 2013), organized by the U.S. Southern Command. It consisted in the construction, during military training exercises by American and Belizean forces, of a hospital ward and a school. This was the second consecutive year that Belize hosted "New Horizons" which the United States presents as a "humanitarian military operation."
On March 15, the U.S. Air Force 571 Mobility Support Advisory Squadron (MSAS), stationed at Travis Air Force Base, California, conducted a military training at the La Aurora airbase in Guatemala City. It included members of the Army, Air Force and Navy as well as Marines deployed in Guatemala. There, seminars on communication strategies, intelligence capabilities and aircraft maintenance were organized. Among their recommendations, one indicated the need to improve aviation safety techniques through the continuity of permanent coordination between Guatemala and the United States.
From 17 February to 20 March, the U.S. 20th Special Forces Group and the Dominican Republic Special Operations Forces (SOF) participated in a combined program of training, exchange and joint deployment (JCET) "focusing on air operations, marksmanship and medical skills". In one of the exercises, the Air National Guard of Puerto Rico (PRANG) and the U.S 95th Civilian Affairs Brigade combined their work with Dominican personnel in an air operation.
It was also learned that members of the aforementioned U.S. Air Force MSAS had completed a temporary assignment in Santiago de Chile, participating in discussions and exchanges with their Chilean counterparts on the support to be provided in aero-medical evacuation emergencies. They also operated a booth at the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE).
It was also reported that some sixty soldiers of the Texas Air National Guard and twelve of the U.S. Southern Air Force Command, participated in exchanges with the Chilean Air Force, and at FIDAE in static exhibitions of freighters C-130 Hercules and fighters F-16 Fighting Falcon.
At the beginning of April 2014, as part of an agreement signed in July 2012 between the government of Colombia and the South Carolina National Guard, members of the U.S. Southern Command and Colombian military participated, in courses to elevate the emergency response capacity of Black Hawk aircrews in Bogota and Melgar.
Unfortunately, the persistence of these exchanges denotes great interest in extending and intensifying interference rather than on terminating it, as is the wish of the countries of Latin America and Caribbean.