Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The latest Wikileaks disclosures this week show deep concern among Latin American countries about the U.S. military presence in South America.
Much of the concern focuses on the use of seven Colombian military bases by American troops.
Brazilian foreign policy advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia told U.S. diplomats in an August 2009 meeting that American troops ran the risk of alienating neighboring countries.
He also said “the only threat to U.S. security in Latin America comes from Mexico,” according to a State Department memo, which is called a “cable.”
Wikileaks, a Web site that publishes secret government documents, has been releasing U.S. State Department communications from 2004 through 2010 in stages over the past week.
American troops are based at the seven Colombian military bases to help protect against organized crime syndicates that cultivate and traffic cocaine.
Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe negotiated a treaty with former U.S. President George W. Bush that allowed the American military to use the bases.
Colombia’s Constitutional Court is reviewing the treaty to determine whether Uribe exceeded his authority by agreeing to the treaty without first seeking approval from the country’s Parliament.
Brazilian diplomats at the August 2009 meeting in Brasilia said the greater risk from the U.S. military presence is that it would become a rallying point for radicals who oppose American foreign policies in Latin America.
Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff told U.S. national security advisor General James L. Jones that, “issues like that open the door for radicals who want to create problems in the region,” according to a report the U.S. Embassy in Brazil sent the U.S. State Department.
The border between Colombia and Venezuela has been a touchy subject in South America in recent years.
Colombia argues that cocaine traffickers and the dissident group Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) use the Venezuelan jungle as a base of operations to stage raids across the border.
Colombia could incite a war if its military crosses into Venezuela to chase after FARC agents or drug traffickers.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denies allegations that he is allowing FARC or drug gangs to set up shop in the jungle.
The dispute prompted a military stand-off last year, when Chavez sent troops to the border with Colombia. He said he was trying to protect the border from the Colombian Army and the U.S. advisors who use the country’s military bases.
Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim said during the meeting in Brasilia that the joint U.S.-Colombia defense treaty could make the border region near Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Venezuela a “legitimate target” of the United States if terrorist activity was detected there.
Officially, Brazil denies that any terrorist organizations are present in its country.
However, the State Department cables reveal Islamic terrorists had been operating in Brazil but the government covered it up.
“Despite publicly expressed sentiments of high-level officials denying the existence of proven terrorist activity on Brazilian soil, Brazil’s intelligence and law enforcement services are rightly concerned that terrorists could exploit Brazilian territory to support and facilitate terrorist attacks, whether domestically or abroad,” said a U.S. Embassy cable.
Brazil – particularly the area around Sao Paulo – is home to an estimated 1.3 million Muslims.
“Officially, Brazil does not have terrorism inside its borders,” said the cable written by Lisa Kubiske, the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Brazil. “In reality, several Islamic groups with known or suspected ties to extremist organizations have branches in Brazil and are suspected of carrying out financing activities.”
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