[Marxism] US buildup in Ecuador prepares escalation of Colombia war

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From Karen Lee Wald


U.S. Military Consolidates the Occupation of Ecuador.

CARLOS FAZIO, La Jornada, circa Jan 3, 2004

(translation: lam, Boletin Latino)

Silently and without firing a single shot, the Pentagon is
consolidating the military occupation of Ecuador. The accelerated
installation of military bases and an espionage center, as well as the
training of elite counterinsurgent units, signal timely preparations
for an eventual launching of Plan Colombia's second phase for the
first months of 2004: a multinational armed intervention against the
FARC and the ELN guerrillas.

The Manta naval and air base, located on the Pacific shore of Ecuador
and one hour flight from the Colombian border, is under the exclusive
jurisdiction of the U.S. Armed Forces' SouthCom (Southern Command).
Manta is an Air Force and Navy command center directing key mercenary
operations under contract to Cyncorp, a Pentagon private
subcontractor, conducting the installation of 3 substitute logistics
centers (under construction) in the provinces of Guayas, Azuay and
Sucumbíos, as well as, the militarization of the Ecuadorian police,
receiving "anti terrorist" training by the FBI.

Visits to the Andean nation by General Wendell L. Griffin, SouthCom
Planning and Strategy Director (end of October) and U.S. special envoy
for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Otto Reich, seem to indicate that
Washington is accelerating preparations to unleash military skirmishes
inside Colombian territory and that Ecuador, with the subordinate
authorization of President Lucio Gutiérrez -a seasoned, retired
colonel-, will perform a function similar to Honduras in Reagan's war
against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua: that of a U.S. aircraft carrier
in an undercover war of aggression.

Manta, center of regional espionage

The South Command, one of the five unified commands of the Pentagon,
covers an area of responsibility that includes 19 Latin American and
Caribbean countries, except French Guiana and Mexico (incorporated de
facto to the North Command). Between 1903 and 1999, SouthCom
headquarters was in the Panama Canal Zone. But by virtue of the
Carter-Torrijos Agreement (1977), the United States had to abandon
Howard Base and a network of government installations (intelligence
teams, radars and satellite antennae) in the country on December 31,
1999 and transferred the South Command to Miami, Florida.

As of 2000, the Pentagon designed a new subregional military control
scheme, through the so-called forward operational locations (FOL),
utilizing land and sea bases in Comalapa (El Salvador), Aruba, Curazao
and Manta. The FOL were designed like centers of "strategic mobility"
and "decisive force" to be used in blitzkrieg attacks by rapid
deployment airborne forces.

In July of that year, the Manta military base became a main center of
electronic espionage in South America using Pentagon satellite
technology. U.S. Orion C-130 spy planes take off from Manta on their
daily missions. Currently the base houses 162 American officers and
231 employees (almost all former soldiers) of the Dyncorp
multinational corporation based in Reston, Virginia, the Pentagon's
headquarter.

A U.S. enterprise with profits of 10 billion USD in 2002, Dyncorp is
subcontracted by the Pentagon for fumigating (illegal cultivations)
under Plan Colombia. But it is also in charge of logistic and
administrative services (maintenance and technical support of
aviation) and offers computer technology services at the base in
Manta. According to Colonel Jorge Brito, Ecuadorian military
strategist, Dyncorp's contractors' in Colombia and Manta -those who
enjoy diplomatic immunity- are all part of espionage activity. "They
can carry out strategic and operational intelligence activities by
simply not wearing a uniform. I say operational activities because
they quietly displace themselves throughout the territory; strategic
because they can access data for military planning."

The existence of a "confidential" covenant framework that facilitates
the execution of projects between Dyncorp and the Aeronautics
Industries Directorate of the Ecuadorian Air Force was publicly
exposed in November. According to military sources, cited by Quito's
El Comercio newspaper, the covenant was not known by the National
Defense Council nor its minister. The situation would eventually
reveal, the existence of uniformed personnel influenced by Plan
Colombia and the Pentagon's regional policy, within the class of local
government officialdom.

The controversial agreement, which bypassed local congressional
approval, accredits the soldiers of the South Command in Ecuador and
the industrious Dyncorp contractors, as members of the U.S. diplomatic
mission in the country. Besides enjoying immunity, the Dyncorp workers
do not pay fiscal taxes or duties, use vehicles without plates and are
to be judged by American courts in case of legal problems.

The hot border of Putumayo and Sucumbíos

When General Wendell L. Griffin was in Ecuador on the 17, 18 and 19 of
October, he visited Quito and Manta under strict security measures. He
was also transferred to New Loja, in Sucumbíos, where he was greeted
by Colonel Ernesto González, commander of the 19th Napo Jungle
Brigade. Once there, he put on a green camouflage uniform, and greeted
the leader of the IV Ecuadorian Army Division, General Gustavo Wall,
at the hot northern Amazon border that abutts with Colombia's Putumayo
region, controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC-EP).

This past September 5, Ecuador's foreign minister, Patricio
Zuquilanda, signed a "secret agreement" with the U.S. commercial
attache' in Quito, Arnold Chacón, offering the South Command the means
to build and manage three "storage centers" to serve populations
affected by natural disasters caused by "El Nino". One will be located
in the province of Guayas, near the Pacific Ocean, another in Azuay,
The Andes, and the third in Sucumbíos.

According to former Ecuadorian ministers and congress persons, the
agreement is in violation of the nation's constitution.

Miguel Morán, leader of the Tohalli movement, declared: "Ecuador is
already a U.S. base; not only Manta. They inaugurated seven military
detachments in Amazonía and are now after key ports (...) The
construction of the logistic centers is a smoke screen to conceal
military activity."

The role of Ecuador as a U.S. aircraft carrier in the heart of Latin
America, with sights on the second phase of Plan Colombia, was
strengthened after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in
Washington and New York. Since then, the number of security agencies,
budget, soldiers and "contractors" assigned to Ecuador by the US has
dramatically increased. In
2001, Washington assigned 2 million dollars to its embassy in Quito.
Last year the figure climbed to 25 million and 37 million in 2003. The
police was one of the main beneficiaries of an aid package described
as "non military" assistance.

Washington counts on seven security offices in Ecuador: defense
(DAO), drug enforcement (DEA), military aid (MAAG), internal security,
national security (NSA), the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) and the Peace Corps. These last two have traditionally have
been used to protect the secret acts of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). Added to all these agencies is the South Command,
handling its activities independently of all others.

Ecuador is now militarily "ready". Its function will be key in the
White House's objective to regionalize the Colombian conflict. As
former Ecuadorian foreign minister, Alfonso Barrier, says, "the
conflict entered our territory through the window". Barrier has asked
Ecuador's president, Lucio Gutiérrez, to play a more independent role
from Washington. And he warns: "The United States is not kind to those
who demonstrate submission."

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