The Salitre 2009 military exercises have begun while the political dispute between Chile and Peru continues. Chile is hosting the exercises and Argentina, Brazil, France and the US are participating. The Chilean AF has posted a website about the event.When I wrote a post earlier this month, Peru was calling on Chile to cancel the exercises, which has obviously not occurred.
Peru's tone has appeared to change a bit in the past week. There have been fewer public complaints about the exercises and Peru's foreign ministry says they do not want to interfere in Chile's sovereign issues. Peru also thanked Chile for changing the enemy in the exercise from a neighboring country to an island.
Still, tensions remain. Peru has refused to send observers to the event (Bolivia agreed to send observers). Chile's defense minister has used the attention to pressure Peru into more transparency on military spending. Peru continues to push for a "nonaggression pact" by which they mean that exercises like these would be canceled. Peru's media have stressed how much money Chile and other participants are spending on the exercises.
Argentina, Brazil, France and the US are unusually quiet about it all. The people I've contacted in the US military have seemed reluctant overall to discuss the exercises, stressing that Chile is running these exercises and the US is just participating. UPDATE: It looks like the 12AF website is updating with stories about US participation.
