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U.S. signs pact with Colombia for base access

BOGOTA — In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers Friday signed a pact to expand Washington’s military’s presence, a deal that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region’s security.

U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield signed along with Colombia’s foreign, justice and defense ministers at the Foreign Ministry in Bogota, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Ana Duque said.

The Foreign Ministry said in a brief news release that the pact “respects the principles of equal sovereignty, territorial integrity and nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states.”

Chavez, who survived a 2002 coup attempt that he claims was U.S.-backed, has said Washington could use the bases agreement to destabilize the region.

However, South America’s main power broker, President Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, dropped initial objections to the bases agreement after senior U.S. officials visited to explain it.

Colombia’s conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, assured leaders at a regional summit in August that U.S. military operations would be restricted to Colombian territory, where a 50-year-old leftist insurgency persists as well as violence related to drug trafficking.

No details of the pact were immediately provided. However, officials have said it would increase U.S. access to seven Colombian bases for 10 years.

U.S. counternarcotics flights that previously operated out of Manta, Ecuador, would be based at the Palanquero base in the central Magdalena valley, and Navy port calls would be more frequent.

But Colombian and U.S. officials have said the pact would not increase the current limits of 800 military and 600 civilian contractors set by U.S. law.

The top U.S. Defense Department official for Latin America, Frank Mora, told The Associated Press in August that there would be no “U.S. offensive capacity” such as fighter jets from any of the bases. However, U.S. construction is planned at Palanquero to expand facilities.

Under the pact, U.S. military personnel will continue to enjoy diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Some Colombians had objected to exempting U.S. military personnel from local criminal jurisdiction.

Duque said the agreement’s text would be published in the U.S. Federal Record within about a month.