Patrolling America's Backyard?

A military deal between the U.S. and Paraguay has put U.S. Special Forces in the sweaty heart of South America, just south of the Tropic of Capricorn. It has also fanned fears that the Bush administration is tip-toeing towards a revised Cold War interventionism on a continent increasingly distanced from Washington.

U.S. officials say troops will operate in small numbers, for short periods of time and will conduct some humanitarian missions along with Paraguayan units, according to a July 7 statement released by U.S. embassy officials in Asunción, the capital.

"U.S. personnel in small numbers, generally between 10 to 20 people, will train with their Paraguayan military colleges during periods from two to six weeks," the statement said. "The U.S. soldiers will not be deployed for extended periods of time and there will never be more than a few dozen U.S. service members in Paraguay for more than 45 days." U.S. officials have downplayed the deal, stressing that the joint exercises, which will focus on counter-terrorism, drug-interdiction and humanitarian aid, are similar to past ones.

But the agreement, approved by the Paraguayan Congress in June, has raised popular worries that the U.S. is trying to establish a permanent military base in South America. Suspicion of ulterior Washington motives involves a large but mostly unused airfield at the Mariscal Estigarribia base in the northern Paraguay. Lawmakers have given the Pentagon access to the base, which was built by U.S. technicians in the 1980s and is larger than Paraguay's civilian airport in Asunción.  

Theories have spread in regional media and on the streets. One says the Pentagon wants to get close to vast natural gas reserves in Bolivia, a country where populist political movements are gaining power.  Another claims the U.S. wants to control the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world's biggest underground water aquifers. "The only thing the U.S. wants is the aquifer," says Noelia Delgado, a store clerk in Buenos Aires, echoing a common sentiment here. "They want what is below the ground."

Perhaps the most intriguing belief is that the U.S. wants to better monitor the so-called Triple Border (or Triple Frontier) area, a lawless jungle corner 500 miles from the Mariscal base where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. The area -- which is anchored by three sister cities of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; Foz do Iguazú, Brazil; and Puerto de Iguazú, Argentina -- is home to a vibrant community of Arab merchants whom U.S. officials have accused of sending millions, perhaps billions, of laundered dollars to Middle East terrorist groups annually.

Though a U.S. Embassy source interviewed last month would not discuss allegations of terrorist financing in the Tri-Border, for people such as Milda Rivarola, a Paraguayan political analyst, the writing is on the wall.  "This is about getting closer to the Triple Border which the U.S. believes is involved in terrorism," said Rivarola.

Others agree. Earlier this month during an interview with Brazilian television, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the Bush administration is likely using its war on terrorism as a pretext to stifle leftist political movements in the region, according to The Washington Times. Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials have accused Chavez in recent months of using oil money to fund destabilizing political elements in neighboring countries such as Colombia, a key Washington ally.  

Suspicions also run high in Washington. A recent report by The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Washington-based think tank, says the proximity of the Paraguayan base to Triple Border Area is "particularly unnerving" and "meant to give the U.S. military a more justified presence in the eyes of many would-be critics." Dr. Larry Birns, the group's director, pointed out that, like the Paraguayan case, Pentagon officials in the 1990s denied interest in turning a small Ecuadorian airstrip into a permanent base, which it eventually did. "We are afraid the same will happen in Paraguay," he said.