Rumsfeld visits Paraguay and Peru

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Paraguay and Peru earlier this month in an attempt to reverse a cycle of instability in the Andean states.

By Dr. Michael A. Weinstein for PINR (24/08/05)

In an attempt to reverse the cycle of instability that has erupted in the Andean states of South America and that continues to intensify, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Paraguay and Peru on 16-18 August.

The pressing reason for Rumsfeld's trip is the deterioration - from Washington's viewpoint - of the political situation in Bolivia, where President Carlos Mesa resigned earlier in the summer after the country was torn apart by autonomy movements in its relatively prosperous south and mass populist direct action in its poverty stricken north. Washington's primary concern is the escalating support for Evo Morales, the charismatic leader whose base among the
northern coca growers has widened to include significant portions of Bolivia's indigenous majority and whose Movement Toward Socialism, which falls in line with the cooperativist ideology of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, commands the most significant bloc in the
Bolivian Congress.

Washington, which has accused Caracas and Havana of lending support to Morales, fears that populist movements opposed to its strategic aims now have a genuine chance to come to power in the Andean states and institute socialist economic models in place of neo-liberal
capitalist free trade, thereby excluding US influence in the region.

Although Bolivia is the proximate threat, Peru and Ecuador are also experiencing increasing instability from populist pressures. In Peru, three coca-growing regions have passed ordinances permitting free cultivation of the crop, and, in Ecuador, protestors in the country's oil-rich Amazon region have occupied petroleum facilities - cutting off the flow of crude oil - to advance their demands that transnational oil companies increase their spending on infrastructure improvements and social programs.

The overriding aim of Rumsfeld's trip to Paraguay and Peru, where he met with the countries' presidents and defense officials, was to persuade them to increase military cooperation with Washington and to create a coalition geared to isolating Caracas in the hemisphere.

Subsidiary goals were to encourage Asuncion's crackdown on smuggling, the drug trade and financial support for Middle Eastern Islamist groups operating in Paraguay's region bordering Brazil and Argentina, and to bolster Lima's commitment to curb coca production for export.

The present strategic importance of Paraguay and Peru for Washington is enhanced by the fact that they border Bolivia.

Rumsfeld's attempt at military diplomacy represents a shift in Washington's policy toward Caracas that had been restrained after Chavez survived a US-supported coup in 2002. Despite deteriorating relations between Washington and Caracas - evidenced by Chavez's
suspension of military and drug enforcement cooperation with the US - the policy of restraint might have continued had it not been for Andean instability. Already stymied in its efforts to create a hemispheric trading bloc dominated by the US, Washington now faces
the possibility of more hostile regimes in the hemisphere.