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PufPuf23

(8,687 posts)
9. Note that Plan Colombia - part of neo-con plan for global dominance
Tue May 31, 2016, 11:13 PM
May 2016

was put into place under Bill Clinton.

Prior to GWB, military base contracts were obtained for Soto Cano airbase in Honduras, Manta Airbase in Ecuador, and FOLs on Curacao and Aruba in the Dutch Antilles directly off the coast of Venezuela. The Manta base has been closed because an American contractor bomber FARC hostage negotiators from France and Venezuela within Ecuador. The Aruba FOL is inactive but improvements but facilities build and improvements made (air strip lengthened for fighters and bombers) and the contract with the Dutch is still in place. The Arubans did not like the FOL as early on rather than DEA and customs, US contractors sent F-15s to bomb FARC-led resistance to the Drummond railroad. Aruba operations were shifted to Curacao which was expanded.

Under POTUS Obama the USA entered contract relations for seven military bases within Colombia in support of Plan Colombia and the free trade agreement.



More about Soto Cano.

http://www.militarybases.us/air-force/soto-cano-air-base/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soto_Cano_Air_Base

Soto Cano Air Base (commonly known as Palmerola Air Base) is a Honduran military base 5 mi (8.0 km) to the south of Comayagua in Honduras. It houses between 500-600 US troops and is also used by the Honduran Air Force academy. The airbase became operational in 1981, changing the old location of the Honduras Air Force Academy in Toncontin, Tegucigalpa to Palmerola.

The US government once used Palmerola as a base of operations to support its foreign policy objectives in the 1980s. Now the US military uses Soto Cano as a launching point for counter-narcotics missions in Central America as well as humanitarian aid missions throughout Honduras and Central America.

In 1990 Honduran President Rafael Leonardo Callejas decreed that commercial cargo flights were authorized to operate from Soto Cano. In 2008 President Manuel Zelaya announced that commercial flights would begin at Palmerola within a period of 60 days, after a crash at Toncontín International Airport which resulted in 5 deaths was blamed on the runway being too short at Toncontín. Following an investigation into the incident, Pilot error was found to be the main cause. The military was placed in charge of building a civilian air terminal with funding from the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (enabled by emergency decrees). This however was cancelled after Zelaya was removed from office on June 28, 2009 in the 2009 Honduran coup d'état. The airport authority and the government of Honduras resumed airport relocation talks in April 2011 and announced that work on the new Palmerola airport would start by the fall of 2011 after years of efforts to replace Toncontín International with an airport at Palmerola in Comayagua where the Soto Cano Air Base is located. However, in a September 25, 2011 update, President Lobo stated officials were still "evaluating the pros and cons" of constructing the new airport. This comes three years after former President Manuel Zelaya had announced that all commercial flights would be transferred to Soto Cano Air Base; however, work on the new terminal at Soto Cano was then cancelled after Zelaya was removed from office on 28 June 2009 in the 2009 Honduran coup d'état.

first of all these so called trade agreements have very little to do with trade hollysmom May 2016 #1
ditto Hollys mom larkrake May 2016 #2
So, if Your Concern Is Human Rights Suffering Under Trade, What About Cuba? TomCADem May 2016 #3
Your assumptions are false. JDPriestly Jun 2016 #17
+10000 Armstead Jun 2016 #21
"What do folks think would happen if those agreements were cancelled?" Thank you Recursion May 2016 #4
I think that thousands and thousands of jobs have been moved to Mexico under the JDPriestly Jun 2016 #16
The Free Trade Agreements are complex, full of nuance, and favor trans-national corporations. PufPuf23 May 2016 #5
The Colombia Free Trade legislation supports continued use of coal and PufPuf23 May 2016 #7
What exactly is "Free trade" versus "Fair trade?" EndElectoral May 2016 #8
Free trade and fair trade defined PufPuf23 May 2016 #10
Isn't Bernie Proposing To Impose Tariffs on Goods from Developing Countries? TomCADem Jun 2016 #11
Smoot Hartley is a red herring and omits nearly 50 years of a successful history under GATT PufPuf23 Jun 2016 #12
Good post. Good analysis. JDPriestly Jun 2016 #14
Thank you. Some days wonder if it is worth the effort. alas. eom PufPuf23 Jun 2016 #18
Why does Bernie's Tariff Work as Opposed to Smoot Hawley? TomCADem Jun 2016 #20
I suspect anything you don't agree with, you just dismiss as "jargon" Armstead Jun 2016 #22
Sorry, I don't have a Ph.D, just trying to understand if yo TomCADem Jun 2016 #23
I didn't write it. Armstead Jun 2016 #24
Sanders is proposing something different than Smoot Hawley. PufPuf23 Jun 2016 #29
Personally, I Gravitate Toward Robert Reich's Views On Trade TomCADem Jun 2016 #30
I am in general agreement with Robert Reich. He is a very smart man. PufPuf23 Jun 2016 #31
Tariffs are not the problem. It's all the other provisions hidden in these trade agreements JDPriestly Jun 2016 #15
Where did you get that information? Trump is proposing such tariffs, not Bernie who has proposed to pampango Jun 2016 #28
Note that Plan Colombia - part of neo-con plan for global dominance PufPuf23 May 2016 #9
Bernie is for fair trade. As are most progressives. Eom jillan May 2016 #6
What is 'fair'? Does that mean only trading with countries with wages as high as ours? CrowCityDem Jun 2016 #26
Even that would be problematic. Our trade deficit per capita is higher with Germany than with China. pampango Jun 2016 #27
Trade is OK. But trade disputes should be settled in courts under national control JDPriestly Jun 2016 #13
FDR knew that, to be fair, trading rules had to be enforced neutrally or they would not work. pampango Jun 2016 #19
More right wing Hillspeak AgingAmerican Jun 2016 #25
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