The Examiner

Commentary: What Americans need to know about Colombia

Aug 14--What do you do when one of your best friends needs your help? Ignore them? Tell them you can’t help them because you’ve got your own problems? Or do you try to help them the best you can?

14 de agosto de 2009

The main thing Americans need to know about Colombia is that the United States has no better friend in South America than Colombia.

This is important because two major issues currently being debated have the potential to greatly affect U.S.-Colombia relations.

1. American use of Colombian military bases

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and his pals in Ecuador and Bolivia have been raising a huge ruckus about this, making wild claims about American imperialism in South America and how the United States will use the bases to launch attacks on Venezuela.

The fact is that the bases will remain in Colombian control and the number of Americans using these bases is limited by American law to a total of 1,400. Perhaps Chavez has such little faith in his armed forces that he doesn’t think they could stop 1,400 Americans from taking over the country. Or maybe he’s been watching “Rambo.” Or maybe he’s worried that the Americans will continue to succeed in assisting Colombia’s efforts to get rid of the drug lords who help finance the Communist FARC rebels.
 
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