The cost of empire

Miriam Pemberton: US government spending $100 B annually to maintain 1000 foreign military bases



The Real News

March 7, 2009

Last week President Obama unveiled his record-spending 2010 budget proposal, which included a slight increase in funding for the Pentagon when compared with George Bush's budget of 2009. Though the specific details of the budget won't be released until April, the President has promised to increase troop recruitment while cutting "cold-war" weapons programs that have yet to be identified. But as the White House undergoes a reassessment of military priorities, there is little discussion about the future of the country's vast network of foreign military bases, a network that military expert Miriam Pemberton says includes roughly 1000 bases at a cost of $100 billion per year.

Bio

Miriam Pemberton is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She heads a group that produces the annual “Unified Security Budget for the United States" and she is a former Director of the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament. She is co-editor, with William Hartung, of "Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War".

Chavez says US, Brazil free to discuss Venezuela

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez attends a Catholic mass in Caracas February 27, 2009. Chavez attended a mass to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the bloody "Caracazo" riots. REUTERS/Miraflores Palace/Handout (VENEZUELA).

By Ian James

March 5, 2009

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has given Brazil's president the green light to talk about Venezuela with President Barack Obama.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to meet Obama on March 14 in Washington, and Chavez said the Brazilian leader told him by phone that "he would like to talk with the president of the United States about the case of Venezuela."

U.S.-Venezuelan relations remain prickly despite the change of administrations in Washington, while Brazil's left-leaning president has maintained friendly relations both with the U.S. and the socialist Chavez.

"We don't need any intermediary to speak with any government on the planet, but since it's Lula and in good faith, I told him yes, that I gave him the green light," Chavez said Thursday in a televised speech, addressing troops...

(click here to view entire report)

The 2009 El Salvador Elections: Between Crisis and Change

Supporters of Mauricio Funes, presidential candidate for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front party (FMLN), participate during a rally at the central market in downtown San Salvador February 25, 2009. El Salvador will hold presidential elections on March 15. REUTERS/Luis Galdamez (EL SALVADOR)

Written by Various Authors

Upside Down World

Thursday, 22 January 2009

After 17 years since the end of El Salvador's civil war, the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) is poised to accomplish what its guerrilla predecessors never did: Takeover the national government with the presidential elections on March 15. The FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes holds a double-digit lead over his rival Rodrigo Avila of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party. An FMLN victory in March would break 20 years of one-party rule by ARENA...

(click here to view entire report)

Benicio del Toro meets Venezuela's Chavez

In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, speaks to Puerto Rico's actor Benicio del Toro during a meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Wednesday, March 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Miraflores Press Office)

March 5, 2009

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Socialist President Hugo Chavez met with a 21st-century incarnation of one of the world's biggest revolutionary icons Wednesday: actor Benicio del Toro, who stars in the new film chronicling the life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Del Toro met with Chavez during a visit in which he also was mobbed by adoring fans and attended a screening of Steven Soderbergh's two-part, 4 1/2-hour film biography "Che."

The Puerto Rican-born, Oscar-winning actor said he sought the lead role in "Che" because he wanted to be part of a "totally Latin American" movie.

Del Toro did not speak in detail about his meeting with Chavez, but said he had "a good time with the president."

"He's nice," the actor told journalists following the encounter at the presidential palace...

(click here to view entire report)

If you go back 19 years, you can find something written by a Washington Post correspondent that was sort of righteous

When Latin America's rich don't pay taxes, things go to hell

A boy plays in Cartagena, Colombia, where the heart of the city is prosperous but the slums are rife with drug trafficking, malnourished children and preventable diseases. (Juan Forero - Twp)

By Eugene Robinson

Washington Post

December 2, 1990

Excerpt from report:

What are the long-term implications [of tax evasion in Latin America] for income distribution in a region where the gap between rich and poor is getting wider every day? The fact that people don't pay their income taxes has led governments to adopt more regressive tax strategies, like value-added taxes that come down harder on the poor. Government would not have to cut so deeply into subsidies and services for the needy if the middle class and the wealthy paid their fair share...

(click here to view entire report)

Campaign to close the School of the Americas Part Two

Vera Leone: They may have changed the school's name, but we are still seeing the same violent results



The Real News

March 2, 2009

In recent years, one of the largest civil society movements in the US has been the movement to close the School of the Americas. Why? What is the connection between the school and the violence of today in Latin America? Pablo Ruiz and Vera Leone explain that even if they succeed in closing the school, there is plenty of work still ahead of them.

Bio

Pablo Ruiz is a Chilean human rights activist, journalist and former political prisoner who lives in Santiago, Chile. He worked in Chile with the Committee Against Impunity, seeking to bring to trial military who had committed human rights abuses during the dictatorship of General Pinochet. Pablo is spearheading efforts to seek the withdrawal of Chile from the School of the Americas. He works as the Communications Coordinator for School of the Americas Watch's Partnership America Latina.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos increasingly appears to be a menace to the region

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos talks at the National Press Club in Washington on July 25, 2008. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

By Jeremy Morgan

Latin American Herald Tribune

March 4, 2009

Excerpt from report:

"If the government of Álvaro Uribe continues, despite his public apology [for the attack on 1 March 2008], with the doctrines enunciated by the Minister of Defense, he will find us ready," threatened [Ecuadorian President Rafael] Correa...

(click here to view entire report)

An interesting story that I forgot to post two weeks ago

Guatemalan president apologizes for country's support of Bay of Pigs

Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom speaks during a conference at Havana's university Tuesday, Feb.17, 2009. Colom was in Cuba on a three-day official visit. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

BBC

February 18, 2009

President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala has apologised to Cuba for his country's role in the failed US-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

The CIA used Guatemalan territory to train Cuban exiles before their disastrous invasion which was quickly defeated by Cuban forces.

"It was not us, but it was our land," President Colom said in Cuba.

His visit is the fifth by a regional leader in 2009 and supports calls for the end of the US trade embargo.

President Colom's apology was greeted with sustained applause at the University of Havana.

He said he was apologising now as a gesture of solidarity and a sign that times had changed.

"Cuba deserves its own destiny, a destiny that you all built with this revolution of 50 years. Defend it like you have always done."

(click here to view entire report)

Chavez calls for justice 2 decades after riots

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ

Associated Press

February 27, 2009

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez on Friday said Venezuela should bring to justice those responsible for violently putting down riots 20 years ago in Caracas.

Chavez blamed the government in power at the time and said Venezuela "should make greater efforts to search for justice."

"I'm asking them to review the whole thing," Chavez said in a speech to commemorate the February 1989 riots known as the "Caracazo."

At least 300 people died in the unrest on Feb. 27 and 28, 1989, provoked by a hike in gasoline prices and public transportation fares. Some activists put the number killed at hundreds more...

(click here to view entire report)