GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY - US Navy Re-establishes Fleet for Latin Am and Carib

[magbana]

From the Venezuela Information Office News Update (April 25, 2008)

Two Articles:

US Navy re-establishes fleet for Caribbean, Latin America
AFP
April 24, 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_JBgvVKHyAqwABeqWcoA54ZVz1Q

WASHINGTON - The US Navy said Thursday it has re-established the US Fourth Fleet to direct an increasing American naval presence in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The move comes as popularly elected leftist regimes, including that of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, pose a growing challenge to US influence in Latin America.

Beginning July 1, the fleet will have operational responsibility over navy ships assigned to the region from the US Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, the navy said.

Admiral Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, said the decision to establish a separate fleet for the region "recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere."

"This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests," he said.

The navy said they will conduct contingency operations, counter "narcoterrorism" operations, and military-to-military interactions and training with countries in the region.

Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, who currently commands the navy's special warfare units, will command the fleet.

The Fourth Fleet was a major US navy command during World War II when it was used to enforce blockades and protect against enemy submarines and raiders, but was eliminated in the 1950s.

It joins five other numbered fleets.

The US Second Fleet is responsible for the Atlantic; the Third Fleet for the eastern and northern Pacific; the Fifth Fleet for the Gulf; the Sixth Fleet for the Mediterannean; and the Seventh Fleet for the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

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4)
U.S. Navy Reviving Fleet for Latin America, Caribbean
By Nadine Elsibai
Bloomberg
April 24, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a094x7Qa8Qeo

The U.S. Navy plans to re-establish its Fourth Fleet, disbanded in 1950, to oversee ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean and Central and South America, a Defense Department statement said.

Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, current commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, will lead the fleet effective July 1, Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, said in a statement. The fleet will be based in Mayport, Florida, coordinating efforts with the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, which also is based there.

``This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests,'' Roughead said.

The U.S. Navy has been planning to build up its forces in the region. Admiral James Stavridis, who oversees military affairs for Latin America, told Congress on March 6 that he backs plans to designate a new fleet, led by a nuclear aircraft carrier, to patrol the waters of the Caribbean and Latin America in support of counter-terrorism operations.

The move comes as South American nations, including Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador, boost military spending to counter tensions and protect oil reserves.

Increased Tensions

Tensions between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia rose last month after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe launched an attack on rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia hiding a mile inside Ecuador, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is leading efforts to counter U.S. influence in Latin America.

Rear Admiral James Stevenson, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, said the re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet will send a message to the entire region, not just Venezuela. The focus will probably be on security, he said.

The fleet could ``certainly bring a lot more stature to the area and increase our ability to get things done,'' Stevenson said in a telephone interview with reporters today.

Chavez reacted to the Navy announcement, saying on state television: ``They don't scare us in the least.'' Chavez said that ``along with Brazil we're studying the creation of a South American Defense Council.''

About 11 vessels are currently under the Southern Command, a number that will probably increase in the future, Stevenson said. The types of carriers and vessels that will be deployed is ``a matter of timing and what needs have to be addressed to the particular mission,'' he said.

Other U.S. Navy fleets are the Pacific Fleet, the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf and the Seventh Fleet off the coast of Asia.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. One way or another Latin America is going to bring it home to Bush that THEY are the ones

who should have the INFLUENCE IN LATIN AMERICA, not our collection of peculiar people from America.



I threw Nathan Sproul and Jesse Helms in there as they are such fine Republicans, among so many winners.

He wants to overthrow the results of all their elections, and place his clown brigade in their presidencies, who'll self-amuse their entire lifetimes, take bribes from U.S. businesses, sell out the entire countries, or, more specifically, the indigenous and African citizens, and those shabby poor people, throw human rights out the window, and move to Miami if the populations turn on them suddenly.

It's time to stop molesting, raping, pillaging these countries, and stay out of their way, FINALLY. Up until recently, moral wrecks in the White House had a hell of a season, spanning so many generations, while they divided and conquered the continent, playing off the corrupt already powerful elite against the poor, finding ways to get some of the poor to have to take up arms and slaughter their brothers and sisters.

Latin America has taken notes. They have written LIBRARIES of books on what the hell has happened to them at the hands of raving assholes in Washington. They KNOW what to expect and they're going to try to go ahead and live their own lives, if that's o.k. with us.

Of course it WON'T be with the buttinskis of the right-wing, who have NEVER grasped their place in the grand scheme of things. Some people have to learn things the hard way. Up 'til now, the hard price was always paid by the people they have run over. I hope and pray it's going to be their turn to see karma headed directly at them, with nowhere for them to hide.

Pulling out the big ships, trying to scare the heck out of the people's leaders, expecting them to flip out and beg for mercy, and sell out their people, just like the good old days. Screw that. I hope they hand him his ass.

[magbana]

2. BoRev "clears up" the US Navy fleet issue in . . .

"Can we be friends?"

http://www.borev.net/2008/04/can_we_be_friends.html