Geosecurity 101: Washington and Moscow's Military Bases in Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

Geosecurity 101: Washington and Moscow's Military Bases in Latin America
Monday, 19 May 2014 10:38
By W. Alejandro Sanchez, Council on Hemispheric Affairs | Report

In spite of ongoing tensions in Ukraine, which have seriously soured relations between Russia and the U.S. & Europe, Moscow has not altogether forgotten the Western Hemisphere. A case in point is the recent visit by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov to four Latin American nations in April (Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua and Peru).

While Lavrov’s trip did not end in any particularly major deals between Moscow and his Latin American hosts, the visit came months after declarations by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that the Russian armed forces require some form of overseas military facilities.[1] Regarding Latin America, the countries mentioned by Minister Shoigu in late February which could hypothetically host a Russian military facility included Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Shoigu’s statement sparked a flurry of debate in the U.S. and Latin America regarding whether Russia’s military ambitions and expansion of its sphere of influence in recent years could be considered as the resumption of the Cold War.

The declarations of the Russian defense minister, as well as the status of the current U.S. military presence in the Americas, can best be discussed in an accurate context of Western Hemispheric geopolitical and geosecurity realities. This could provide some insightful perspectives and likely scenarios of how the military component of global powers that have a presence in Latin America and the Caribbean may evolve in the near future.

US Bases in the Western Hemisphere

Previous COHA military research papers have examined various aspects of U.S. military bases in Latin America and the Caribbean, but a brief recapitulation is always useful.[2] Washington’s current bases in the Western Hemisphere (outside of the U.S. and its affiliated territories) include:

• Joint Task Force Bravo – Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras.[3] Currently, American military personnel carry out medical operations to Hondurans as well as assisting that country when natural disasters occur. For some time, it has been rumored that the Honduran government would like to take over the facility in order to convert the landing strip into a commercial airport, and the U.S. personnel would likely open a new base along the Caribbean coast of the country (COHA discussed this possibility in a November 2006 report).[4] Nevertheless, these speculations have yet to become a reality.
  
  
• Comalapa – El Salvador. The naval base was opened in 2000 after the U.S. military left Panama in 1999 and the Pentagon needed a new forward operating location for maritime patrol, reducing transit times and increasing on-station effectiveness to support multi-national counter illicit missions. According to its website, Cooperative Security Location (CSL) Comalapa has a staff of 25 permanently assigned military personnel and 40 civilian contractors. The staff stationed in Comalapa have the mission of providing 24/7 critical logistics, security and infrastructure support to all forward deployed U.S. aviation units participating in counter-illicit trafficking operations. A recent example of humanitarian operations carried out by the military personnel at Comalapa occurred in April, when U.S. sailors stationed in that facility raised more than $1,100 for an Easter meal and Easter egg hunt for a local children’s home.

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23787-geosecurity-101-washington-and-moscows-military-bases-in-latin-america

[geek tragedy]

1. I guess that's just poor sweet Russia trying to maintain its buffer zone,

as some apologists have dubbed the aggression towards Ukraine.

Unlike the Chinese and Americans, the Russians don't have the money to throw away on this kind of empire building.