Regional security in the Americas
The Eighth Defense Ministerial of the Americas: End of the Line?
by Ray Walser
Heritage Foundation
The Canadian government will host the Eighth Defense Ministerial of the Americas (DMA) September 2–6 at Banff in the scenic Canadian Rockies. The purpose of the meeting is the promotion of regional defense and security cooperation in the Americas and the strengthening of ties among 34 invited nations. It is a ministerial event in search of a diplomatic and strategic meaning—and at present lacking both.
Harbinger of Security Cooperation
The first DMA took place in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1995. It began as a defense and security counterpart for the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americas. The U.S. launched the DMA in the proximate aftermath of the Cold War at a time when the U.S. and Latin America appeared to be moving with unity of purpose toward strengthening democracy, expanding free trade, guaranteeing basic human rights, and deepening defense reform and security cooperation.
An underlying assumption of this DMA process was that as the world’s sole superpower, the U.S. was uniquely positioned to mentor the Hemisphere’s armed forces as they set out to discover new roles and relationships in an altered geopolitical environment. The threat posed by the Soviet Union and its proxies had vanished, and Cuba had sunken into nasty but largely isolated dotage.
Among the fundamental “Williamsburg principles” were calls for defending democracy, broadening civilian control over the military, increasing transparency in defense matters, and enhancing confidence-building among nations. These were to become benchmarks for building a better, more unified, and safer Americas. The DMA was also seen as a forum for encouraging non-traditional roles for militaries and strategies to meet emerging transnational threats.
History Returns to Latin America
While its principles remain sound, the DMA today has lost cohesion and much of its rationale for convening. Latin America, thanks to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution, is engaged in its own version of “the return to history,” to quote conservative strategic thinker Robert Kagan.[1] Signs of this return include a mixture of ethno- and resource-nationalism coupled with a reappearance of Péronist-style populism in Venezuela and elsewhere. For the fervent U.S.-bashers in Latin America, Chávez is the new Fidel Castro, a David striking out at the imperial U.S. hegemon. [Read more →]
Sphere: Related ContentTags: bolivarian revolution, Brazil, canada, Cuba, defense matters, democracy, Ecuador, Fidel Castro, geopolitical environment, Latin America, Mexico, President Hugo Chavez, Russia, Security, security cooperation, transnational threats, Venezuela, Washington, Western Hemisphere
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September 3, 2008 No Comments
Democrat Vice-President’s background on Latin America
Senator Joe Biden’s (D-Deleware), Democrat VP candidate, background on Latin America is examined by the Americas Society, and his Cuba policy is noted:
Sphere: Related ContentThe issue of U.S. policy toward Cuba has served as a source of debate between Obama and presumptive Republican candidate John McCain. On this matter, Biden has demonstrated support for the U.S. embargo against Cuba and voted in favor of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which opened the door to suing foreign companies that benefit from confiscated American property in Cuba. Following the resignation of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the senator from Delaware proposed easing restrictions on travel and remittances from the United States, establishing direct mail, and supporting the creation of small businesses in the island without relaxing the embargo.
Tags: Cuba, embargo against cuba, Fidel Castro, Helms-Burton, John McCain, Latin America, remittances, Senator Joe Biden, US
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August 28, 2008 No Comments
Morning in Latin America
Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico, has written an article (preview only) for Foreign Affairs in which he believes the key to a successful foreign policy in Latin America is to focus on four critical issues — Cuba, immigration, trade, and the “two lefts”.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: Cuba, foreign affairs, foreign minister of mexico, foreign policy, immigration, Latin America, Trade
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August 24, 2008 No Comments
Russia, Cuba and Latin America
Gary Brookins Cartoon - Cold War
La Nueva Cuba has published two articles related to Russia, Cuba and Latin America.
The first is an editorial by Pravada titled “Battle for Ossetia transferred to Latin America,” stating Russia’s support of its allies (Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia) in Latin America. There is no English translation, however, a Spanish one is made by Urgente 24 from Argentina. And the second article is an interview (in Spanish) of Dr. Valdimir Zudarev (Vice-Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Latin American Institute) by Radio Nederland’s InformaRN, who is quoted as saying: “Moscow wants to return to Latin America.”
Sphere: Related ContentTags: Bolivia, Cuba, Latin America, Moscow, Ossetia, radio nederland, Russia, russian academy of sciences, urgente 24, Venezuela
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August 23, 2008 No Comments
Cuban espionage, threat to the Americas
By Jerry Brewer via Mexidata.info
Totalitarian dictatorships still exist and, as a matter of fact, they are very much alive in Latin America. Democracies throughout the Americas must immediately address their governments’ counterintelligence missions, and their strategic long and short range vision to monitor aggression and other forms of insurgency within their homelands.
Cuba’s intelligence and spy apparatus has been described as a “contingency of very well-trained, organized and financed agents.” Too, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has adopted the previous Soviet-styled Cuban intelligence service (DGI) as his model for Venezuela’s security service, known as the DISIP, utilizing Cuban intelligence counterparts and advisors.
What is the history of Cuba’s communist trained spies?
Cuba has trained thousands of communist guerrillas and terrorists, and has sponsored violent acts of aggression and subversion in most democratic nations of the southwestern hemisphere. U.S. government studies within the intelligence community documented a total of 3,043 international terrorist incidents in the decade of 1968 to 1978. Within that study, “over 25 percent occurred in Latin America.”
Recent reports are that Cuba has been expanding intelligence operations in the Middle East and South Asia. This reported by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Cuba has consistently maintained a well-organized and “ruthless” intelligence presence within Mexico, as have the Russians. Much of their activity involved in U.S. interests that include recruiting disloyal U.S. military, government, and “private sector specialists. [Read more →]
Sphere: Related ContentTags: Colombia, communist guerrillas, Cuba, Defense Intelligence Agency, Ecuador, guerrillas and terrorists, Hugo Chavez, intelligence operations, intelligence service, international terrorist incidents, Latin America, mexican drug cartels, Mexico, Middle East, middle eastern terrorists, narcoterrorism, Peru, President Hugo Chavez, President Rafael Correa, South Asia, subversion, totalitarian dictatorships, US, Venezuela
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August 19, 2008 No Comments
Cuba has no interest in a new Russian presence
Radio Netherlands examines Russian interest in restoring its military base in Cuba and the Cuban government’s lack of interest:
Cuba itself has already made it fairly clear that there’s no question of a renewed Russian military colonialism. The country is still sore at the fact that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought an end to the liberal flow of funds from Moscow. And the leadership in Havana hasn’t forgotten that ten years later, without any consultation, Russia ended to its last military presence in Cuba: the vast intelligence base in Torrens, better known as “Lourdes”, from which legend has it a pin could be heard falling anywhere in the southern United States, and all US communications could be tapped.
The present Cuban leader Raúl Castro would also seem to have little to gain from Russian sabre-rattling over Cuba, particularly as he now seems to be taking cautious steps towards improving relations with the United States.
Quite apart from all the overblown talk surrounding Cuba, it’s plain that the Russian army is using the extra billions in revenue from oil and gas sales to bring its military hardware up to scratch. New nuclear weapons and nuclear submarines have been developed, and an order has just been made for twelve new aircraft carriers (albeit of a modest size and without the usual nuclear propulsion), and there are feverish attempts to lift the armed forces out of the mess into which the once so mighty Red Army descended after the fall of the Soviet Union.
From the perspective of military strategy, there is no sign that Moscow has the least interest in Latin America, other than for occasional arms sales to countries like Venezuela. Russia’s geopolitical priorities now lie in Asia, where it is seeking a strategic partnership with China and India, and was co-initiator of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a potential future counterpart to NATO. In contrast to the vague events now surrounding Cuba, in 2003 there was a military exercise to really set the alarm bells ringing. For the first time since 1991, Russian strategic bombers appeared above the Indian Ocean. The scenario of the exercise was plain enough: how to take out an entire US naval unit using nuclear cruise missiles. There’s nothing vague about that.
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Tags: Armed Forces, Asia, Government, International Relations, Latin America, Lourdes, Moscow, nuclear submarines, nuclear weapons, Russia, Venezuela
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August 5, 2008 No Comments
