Military pact to isolate Colombia

Colombia: Colombian Polo Democratico Alternativo's presidential hopeful, Gustavo Petro, warned on Thursday that the presence of US troops in military bases in Colombia will isolate diplomatically the country from the rest of Latin America.

Petro said the secret negotiation of a military agreement between Bogota and Washington threatens national sovereignty.

According to Petro, the dialogue about this issue must be multilateral between the United States and all the nations in the continent, so that each country is able to express their disagreement with the presence of foreign troops.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is currently on a South American tour to explain to seven presidents the scope of the said agreement, described by some governments as a threat to Latin American stability and peace. In this regard, countries including Brazil, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela, among others, have expressed their concern and demanded transparency from Uribe's government about the real magnitude of the pact, which has generated serious frictions between Colombia and its neighbors. If the pact becomes a reality, 1,400 US troops will stay permanently in Colombia, 800 of them directly and another 600 as contractors, using at least seven military bases, according to press reports.

Several voices of the Colombian political spectrum, including Senator Pilar Cordoba, have said that this pact undermines national sovereignty and turns Colombia into a hostile country to its neighbours by becoming the spearhead of US expansion.

Bogota, Prensa Latina