With great concern, we follow the news according which Brazil, Peru and Colombia will include US troops in a joint military exercise in the Amazon border region, in November. It is symptomatic that this invitation for US participation was made by Brazil, according to the domestic media, where the population lives in post-coup d'etat, under reactionary policies subservient to the empire and promoted by an illegitimate government.
The World Peace Council has rejected US interventionism and its blatant threat against the nations' sovereignty, which includes the installment of nearly one thousand military bases all over the planet and its military presence in all continents.
We are also concerned by the fact that the plans came up within the framework of AmazonLog – a military drill focused on logistics created after a meeting held by NATO, the imperialist war machine, in 2015, in which Brazil has participated as an observer – and within the narrative according which the initiative also aims to promote a “rapprochement” between Brazil and the US.
Under the illusory title “Operation United America”, US troops will be in the Brazilian Amazon for one week. It will be the first time that US troops take direct part in the drills conducted by the three bordering countries, in a moment of intensified regional tension and of threats from the US imperialism against the progressive governments in Latin America.
It is no news that the US geostrategic interests in Latin America include the control of routes, natural and energy resources and the Amazon's biodiversity, which has already motivated the US support for coups and brutal military regimes in the past and currently continues to motivate the promotion of coups under new guises.
It is no news, moreover, that the US makes pretexts up for its presence and promotion of aggressive policies for the militarization of the region: the fight against drug trafficking and other transnational crimes – such as, supposedly, terrorism, which has for decades promoted the repression and persecution of insurgent movements.
Therefore, movements in solidarity with the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, in their struggle for their second and definitive independence and in defense of their national sovereignties, for a Zone of Peace and friendship, follow up attentively and vehemently reject the rise on US military presence in the region.
For the end of foreign military bases and the imperialist interventionism!
Socorro Gomes
President of the World Peace Council