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neither the US Congress nor the Canadian House of Commons. The 17. United States Uses South American Military Bases to BPG is also scheduled to expire in May 2006—hence the push for Expand Control of the Region Canada to join NORTHCOM. lhe United States has a military base in Manta, Ecuador—one NORTHCOM's jurisdiction, outlined by the US Department of of three military bases located in Latin America. The US Defense (DoD), includes all of Canada, Mexico, parts of the Government says it is there to help the citizens of Manta, but an Caribbean, contiguous waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, up article by Michael Flynn in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists says to 500 miles of the Mexican, United States and Canadian coastlines that many people tell a different story. as well as the Canadian Arctic. According to Miguel Moran, head of a group called Movimiento Under NORTHCOM, Canada's military command structures Tohalli which opposes the Manta military base: would be subordinated to those of the Pentagon and the DoD. In "Manta is part of a broader US imperialist strategy aimed at December 2001, the Canadian government reached an agreement exploiting the continent's natural resources, suppressing popular with the head of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, entitled the movements and ultimately invading neighboring Colombia." "Canada-US Smart Border Declaration", which allows confidential Flynn reports that the military base in Ecuador is an "integral part information on Canadian citizens and residents to be handed over to _ of the US counterinsurgency strategy in Colombia—an4d is a potential the US Department of Homeland Security. staging-ground for direct American involvement in the conflict The BPG is the interim military for NORTHCOM. Part of the there". He adds that "Ecuadorians worry that the US could ultimately BPG's agenda is the Civil Assistance Plan (CAP), which supports the _ pull their country into conflict". ongoing militarisation of the civilian law enforcement and judicial Flynn goes on to say that "the base is also at the center of a grow- functions in both the USA and Canada. Military commanders would _ ing controversy regarding the US efforts to block mass emigration "provide bi-national military assistance from Ecuador [to the US]". to civil authorities". The United States According to a 10-year lease military would have jurisdiction over Under an integrated North agreement between Ecuador and the Canadian territory from coast to coast, United States, "US activities at the base extending from the St Laurence Valley American Command, Canada are to be limited to counter-narcotics to Parry Island in the Canadian Arctic. would be forced to embrace surveillance flights". Ecuadorian It appears that some Canadian lead- citizens are not pleased with the lease . ' . ers are in full support of this program. Washington s pre-emptive or the way the US has abused it. In the summer of 2004, Canada agreed military doctrine includin the The US, says Flynn, is intervening in to amend the NORAD treaty to allow y ; g Colombia through private corporations sharing satellite and radar data with the use of nuclear warheads asa and organisations. Most of the military ballistic missile defence program based means of self-defence which operations and the spraying of bio- 3 in Colorado, USA. This operation cen- chemical agents are contracted out to tre will control the 40 interceptor rock- was ratified by the US Senate private firms and private armies. cs pamed fr Aska, Caomia nd |i December 2003. seer nari On February 22, 2005, at the NATO in Z Magazine, the US State summit in Brussels, Canadian prime Department said "there are seventeen minister Paul Martin declared that his people would not participate in —_— primary contracting companies working in Colombia, initially the controversial Missile Defense Shield program. Contradicting this _ receiving $3.5 million". message, Canada's ambassador to the US (and former board member One of these private American defence contractors, DynCorp, runs of The Carlyle Group) Frank McKenna said: "We are part of it the military base at Manta. now." "The Pentagon's decision to give DynCorp—a company that many On August 2, 2004, the US Air Force quietly published a new doc- —_ Latin Americans closely associate with US activities in Colombia— trine, "Counterspace Operations". Meantime, Canadian military per- the contract to administer the base reinforced fears that the United sonnel are taking part in large-scale American space war-games States had more than drug interdiction in mind when it set up shop in designed to prepare for combat in orbit. Manta," says Flynn. Under an integrated North American Command, Canada would be In addition, say Sharma and Kumarin, DynCorp was awarded a forced to embrace Washington's pre-emptive military doctrine, "$600 million contract to carry out aerial spraying to eliminate coca including the use of nuclear warheads as a means of self-defence, crops which also contaminates maize, yucca and plantains—staple which was ratified by the US Senate in December 2003. foods of the population; children and adults develop skin rashes". Similar bi-national negotiations are being conducted with Mexico. | The chemical—the foundation for the herbicide Roundup—is The US military could exert strategic control over air space, land sprayed in Ecuador in a manner that would be illegal in the United mass and contiguous territorial waters extending from the Yucatan States. Peninsula in southern Mexico to the Canadian Arctic, representing 12 According to the November/December 2004 Report by NACLA per cent of the world's land mass. (North American Congress on Latin America), in 2004 the Pentagon The militarisation of South America under the Andean Trade began installing three substitute logistics centres (now under con- Preference Act and a "parallel" military cooperation protocol signed _ struction) in the provinces of Guayas, Azuay and Sucumbios, and is by 27 countries of the Americas (the so-called Declaration of currently militarising the Ecuadorian police who are receiving "anti- Manaus) is an integral part of the process of hemispheric integration _ terrorist" training by the FBI. (see story no. 17). (Sources: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February (Sources: Centre for Research on Globalization, November 23, 2005, http://www.thebulletin.org; Z Net, December 29, 2004, 2004, http://www.globalresearch.ca; Canadian Dimension Magazine, http://www.zmag.org; NACLA Report on the Americas, January/February 2005, http://www.canadiandimension.com/) November/December 2004, http://www.nacla.org) Washington's pre-emptive military doctrine, including the use of nuclear warheads asa means of self-defence, which was ratified by the US Senate in December 2003. NEXUS +19 Under an integrated North American Command, Canada would be forced to embrace DECEMBER 2005 — JANUARY 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com