Oil find is a game-changer for Paraguay

[Judi Lynn]

17. Of course there's an airbase in Paraguay: Mariscal Estigarribia.

[center]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_r9lhQTeVJv4/SPSrok8q1hI/AAAAAAAAEfw/74JlAweLETw/s400/mariscal+estigarribia.jpg







ENTRADA. ASI LUCE LA PUERTA DE ACCESO AL AEROPUERTO
MONTADO JUNTO A LA BASE MARISCAL ESTIGARRIBIA.
(Foto: NORBERTO DUARTE)

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Mariscal Estigarribia airbase

"The Estigarribia airbase was constructed in the 1980s for U.S. technicians hired by the Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and is capable of housing 16,000 troops," Dangl wrote. "A journalist writing for the Argentine newspaper Clarin, recently visited the base and reported it to be in perfect condition, capable of handling large military planes. It’s oversized for the Paraguayan airforce, which only has a handful of small aircraft. The base has an enormous radar system, huge hangars and an air traffic control tower. The airstrip itself is larger than the one at the international airport in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. Near the base is a military camp which has recently grown in size."

Criminal Immunity

"On May 26, 2005 the Paraguayan Senate granted the U.S. troops total immunity from national and International Criminal Court jurisdiction until December 2006. The legislation is automatically extendable. Since December 2004, the U.S. has been pressuring Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay into signing a deal which would grant immunity to U.S. military. The Bush administration threatened to deny the countries up to $24.5 million in economic and military aid if they refused to sign the immunity deal." Dangl wrote.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._military_presence_in_Paraguay

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September 23, 2005
US Military Establishes Base in Paraguay

Preparations made to "spread democracy"

by Ben Dangl

Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the US military is conducting secretive operations. 500 US troops arrived in the country on July 1st with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, which is 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia and may be utilized by the US military. Officials in Paraguay claim the military operations are routine humanitarian efforts and deny that any plans are underway for a US base. Yet human rights gropsin the area are deeply worried.
White House officials are using rhetoric about terrorist threats in the tri-border region (where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet) in order to build their case for military operations, in many ways reminiscent to the build up to the invasion of Iraq. [1]

The tri-border area is home to the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world's largest reserves of water. Near the Estigarribia airbase are Bolivia's natural gas reserves, the second largest in Latin America. Political analysts believe US operations in Paraguay are part of a preventative war to control these natural resources and suppress social uprisings in Bolivia.

Argentine Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel commented on the situation in Paraguay, "Once the United States arrives, it takes it a long time to leave. And that really frightens me." [2]

More:
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/accounts/2005/09/23/us_militar.html