EYE ON LATIN AMERICA

US MILITARY intervention in Colombia's four-decades-old civil war was
initiated nearly two years ago by the Clinton administration with a $1.3
billion emergency military aid package dubbed Plan Colombia. The plan was
justified in the name of waging a "war on drugs". In the aftermath of
September 11, the Bush administration has decided to dramatically expand US
military involvement in the South American country. As in Afghanistan, the
escalation is being carried out under the banner of the struggle against
terrorism, but critics say its real objectives centre on securing US
corporate control over the region's strategic oil reserves.

Even as it prepares to intervene in a more direct military fashion in
Colombia, Washington is turning up the heat on the populist government of
Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the third-largest exporter of petroleum to the US
market.

Earlier this month, the administration unveiled plans for the creation of a
special 2,000-4,000-member 'Critical Infrastructure Brigade' of the
Colombian army that would be deployed to protect US-owned oil
installations. Specifically, it would be assigned to guard a nearly
500-mile pipeline that carries oil belonging to Los Angeles-based
Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The pipeline has been a frequent target
of guerrilla bombing attacks.

The White House has asked Congress to approve $98 million in the 2003
budget for training, arming and supplying US air support for the Colombian
pipeline troops.

The funding is on top of $731 million that the administration is seeking
"to support anti-drug activities, economic development and the
strengthening of democratic institutions" in South America. According to
Press reports, the Bush administration is planning to funnel another $1
billion in military supplies and training to the Colombian military.

It was no accident that the California-based petroleum company and the now
bankrupt Enron, which carved out extensive natural gas holdings in
Colombia, were among the biggest backers of Plan Colombia and the military
aid package.

To go by the assessment of critics of Bush's foreign policy, just as US
forces intervened in the Gulf and Central Asia to assert American hegemony
over the oil supplies of those regions, now it is South America's turn.
Already, Colombia and its oil-producing neighbours, Venezuela and Ecuador,
export more oil to the US than all the Gulf countries combined.

While Colombian oil exports to the US are not decisive for the US economy
today, Washington is looking to the region from the standpoint of its
strategic objective of diversifying its sources of petroleum supplies.