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563L’arrivée de nouveau président colombien Santos (le 7 août) a changé la situation en Colombie. Sa politique est de chercher à calmer les tensions, surtout avec le Venezuela de Chavez, sans rompre avec Washington. Une intervention de la Cour Suprême contre l’accord USA-Colombie sur les bases US dans ce pays conduit à l’annonce officieuse que cet accord sera sans doute abandonné. La coopération USA-Colombie se poursuivra selon les normes en vigueur.
Les détails des circonstances qui conduisirent à l’accord Colombie-USA d’octobre 2009, qui va être abandonné, montrent surtout une poussée bureaucratique US à laquelle personne, à Washington, ne s’est vraiment intéressé, et qui a gravement compromis la situation de sécurité en Amérique du Sud. Vieille histoire, qui a conduit à une crise entre les USA et l’Amérique Latine et divers bruits alarmistes sur ces bases.
L’article cité est du Washington Times, le 26 août 2010.
«A U.S.-Colombia military basing agreement that was blocked last week by Colombia's highest court is not likely to be renegotiated, Colombian officials told The Washington Times on Thursday.
»Following a Constitutional Court ruling striking down the agreement, saying it required congressional approval, the Colombian government appears content to continue joint cooperation against narco-traffickers and leftist guerrillas under current arrangements without a new pact, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
»“Even though the agreement would be able to go through Congress without a problem, it would cause a lot of problems,” said one official, who noted the possibility of another blowup with neighboring Venezuela or an outcry from domestic opponents of the pact. […]
»State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told The Times that the Obama administration has been “in touch with the Santos government” about the court decision, but that “meanwhile, our close cooperation with Colombia will continue under pre-existing agreements.”
»Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that when news leaked about the impending agreement last year, there was a widespread impression across the region that “it allowed for the United States to establish bases in Colombia, that Colombia was going to be overflowing with U.S. troops.”
»“None of that was true,” Mr. DeShazo said. “The idea of the defense-cooperation agreement was to streamline and bring up to date the agreements that were already in effect.”
»Inter-American Dialogue President Michael Shifter said the administrations of Mr. Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had been eager to push through the deal to cement U.S.-Colombia security ties, and that “the Obama administration did not carefully consider the political and strategic implications of the agreement.”
»“It was carried forward from the Bush administration by bureaucratic inertia,” he said. “The costs for the U.S. – with Brazil in particular, which had recently launched the South American Defense Council, could have been avoided through more skillful and effective diplomacy.” Mr. Shifter said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's strong reaction, which included a crippling trade embargo, was predictable and “probably would have been hard to moderate even with the best diplomacy.”
»“I believe the Colombians wanted a more expansive, formal accord to cover U.S. access to the facilities in their territory,” said Roger Noriega, who was assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs in the Bush administration. “They decided on modalities, and we were eager to continue our cooperation.”»
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