Colombia signs military base pact

BOGOTA, Colombia | In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers on Friday signed a pact to expand Washington’s military’s presence, a deal that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region’s security.

U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield signed the pact along with Colombia’s foreign, justice and defense ministers at the Foreign Ministry in Bogota, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Ana Duque said.

Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the pact restricts U.S. military operations to Colombian territory - alluding to fears expressed by leftist leaders in the region that the deal would make Colombia a base for asserting U.S. power in South America.

Although details were not immediately released, a government communique said the pact “respects the principles of equal sovereignty, territorial integrity and nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states.”

Officials have said it would increase U.S. access to seven Colombian bases for 10 years without boosting the number of service personnel and contractors beyond the cap of 1,400 specified by U.S. law.

U.S. counter-drug flights that previously operated out of Manta, Ecuador, would be based at the Palanquero base in the central Magdalena valley and Navy port calls would be more frequent.

“We are not bringing U.S. soldiers to Colombia for combat,” Mr. Bermudez told reporters. “We’re not going to see an unusual number of U.S. military personnel, nor U.S. planes in excess. What we’re going to see is what we’ve always seen.”

The top U.S. Defense Department official for Latin America, Frank Mora, said in August there would be no “U.S. offensive capacity” such as fighter jets from any of the bases. However, U.S. construction is planned at Palanquero to expand facilities.

Mr. Chavez, who survived a 2002 coup attempt that he claims was U.S.-backed, has said Washington could use the bases agreement to destabilize the region.

However, South America’s main power broker, President Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, dropped initial objections to the bases agreement after senior U.S. officials and Colombia’s conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, made separate visits to explain it.

Mr. Uribe also assured regional leaders at an August summit that U.S. military operations would be restricted to Colombian territory, where a half-century-old leftist insurgency persists as well as violence related to drug trafficking.

U.S. law specifies that no more than 800 U.S. military personnel and 600 civilian contractors may be in Colombia at any one time. Currently, there are some 230 U.S. service personnel and 400 contractors in the country, Mr. Bermudez said.