Uruguay strengthens ties with U.S.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
News about military-cooperation programs between the US and Uruguay is making headlines, especially the political debates on the issue, in this small country with a long history of clearly anti-US sentiment. While the assistance plans, troop training, provision of materials, and even the possibility of building a military base have come into the spotlight in recent months, they have been developing since 2005, when, after nearly two centuries of institutional life, the left and political progressives took power for the first time, through the Frente Amplio (FA) and President Tabare Vazquez (NotiSur, March 4, 2005).
The relationship with the "old enemy" has been strengthened during the second FA administration, led by President Jose Mujica, a former guerrilla, and a Cabinet filled in large part with other well-known ex-guerrillas--all former senior members of the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional-Tupamaros (MLN-T).
From the unsuccessful attempt to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the US (NotiSur, Oct. 27, 2006) and the current interest in joining the Alianza del Pacifico (AP) to Uruguay's offer to be the site for a training school for troops from the region participating in international peacekeeping missions and the US Navy's training of Uruguayan naval personnel (NotiSur, Aug. 24, 2012), "everything happening is so far removed from those times in recent history when these same guerrillas filled the walls with the classic 'Yankees go home!' slogan that became a true mark of the Latin American left of which the Tupamaros were a model," said Jorge Zabalza, another former guerrilla now distanced from the MLN-T.
While the details of a "framework defense agreement" that Mujica and US President Barack Obama will analyze during the coming year remain unknown to the Uruguayan public, and even to governing-party legislators and Cabinet ministers, general terms are known and refer to the "procurement of supplies and the reciprocal provision of military services."
Agreement would reportedly facilitate ^reciprocal, logistical support
A May 17 story in the progressive Uruguayan weekly magazine Brecha said that the two sides are aiming "to facilitate reciprocal logistical support to be used primarily during joint exercises, training, deployments, landings, operations, and other activities, or in unforeseen circumstances in which one of the parties could require logistical support, supplies, and services."
The article by journalist Samuel Blixen...
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