About 1,000 Marines and Sailors from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, United States and Uruguay took part in Southern Exchange (SE 09). The exercise was designed as a platoon level, multinational exchange that focuses on enhancing proficiency and interoperability between the U.S. Marine Corps and partner nation forces to manage a wide range of regional threats and strengthen relationships resulting in regional stability and security in the region.While certain leaders in the hemisphere are freaking out over the new US military agreement with Colombia, US Marines and Sailors (including some from the "notorious" Fourth Fleet) took part in a military exercise in Brazil. The exercise included training on peacekeeping in urban areas, disaster relief, marksmanship and combat medicine. The fact that a three week military exercise involving over 1,000 members of the armed forces from half of UNASUR's countries and the US military went practically unnoticed in the regional media and un-commented upon by its leaders is significant to the issues of sovereignty I wrote about last week.
For every high-profile controversy over US military presence in the region, there are probably three dozen uncontroversial exercises or events, with Southern Exchange being the most recent. And if you judge by the participation of countries like Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, this is a type of military cooperation the region appreciates and benefits from.
Other countries, specifically Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, are looking to UNASUR and the South American Defense Council (SADC) to ban the presence of outside military forces from the region. They are aiming at the US "bases" in Colombia; if they succeed, what they'll hit are exercises like Southern Exchange. Colombia isn't going to change its agreement with the US due to what is decided at UNASUR. However, giving the regional organizations oversight and perhaps veto power over the presence of foreign forces would have real effects on exercises like these.
Are Peru, Argentina or Chile ready to give UNASUR oversight over what military exercises they can attend? Is Brazil going to give the regional group veto power over whether it can invite the US military to participate in exercises in its territory? Those are the real questions being addressed at UNASUR, even if the rhetoric focused on Colombia. Those are the reasons that UNASUR could not reach a substantive agreement on Monday about the issues and there was no mention of the controversy in the final declaration.
Another meeting is planned on the US-Colombia agreement at the end of August. These same questions will remain. For UNASUR and the SADC to succeed, they need to deal responsibility with these larger questions of defense cooperation, not just focus on the controversy du jour (which they really can't affect anyway). Finding the balance between regional integration and national sovereignty is next challenge. Countries like Brazil and Chile know that the precedent they set with Colombia could turn out to be a bad deal for their own countries down the road.
