When first announced early this
year, the 2010 PANAMAX war games were going to be held in Panama and
would be larger than ever. Since then, however, a number of events have
intervened:
-
Europe
fell into an economic crisis. The hardest hit countries had not planned
to participate in the PANAMAX games in any event, but the hard times or
threats of hard times are rippling across the continent, so the
tentative plans of Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to
participate were cancelled.
-
Except
for the stock market and bank profits, the United States did not emerge
from its crisis, and economic recovery in Latin America has also come
slowly. Thus the cost to the remaining countries of sending ships
became a burden and the live naval exercise aspect that has always
characterized the PANAMAX games since their inception in 2003 was
greatly reduced, in favor of classroom and computer simulations.
-
Despite
all smiles and denials, US relations with Panama cooled, most probably
over allegations of drug cartel infiltration of Ricardo Martinelli's
government and political party. Thus the big naval show off of Panama
was toned down, while other naval games similar to what had taken place
here before were held in the waters and on the coasts of Colombia and
Peru.
-
Just
before the PANAMAX games were to begin, Colombia's Constitutional Court
struck down a treaty that would allow US forces --- up to 800 military
personnel and up to 600 "civilian contractor" mercenaries --- to use
seven bases in Colombia. The court held that the treaty would need to
be ratified by the Colombian Congress, and while there seems to be no
insurmountable obstacle there, the country's new President Juan Manuel
Santos has moved to put the rowdy arguments of his predecessor Álvaro
Uribe with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez in the past. The problem
is that the governments of Venezuela and Ecuador consider those bases
to be aimed at them, and some of the region's more moderate governments
also consider them unseemly and divisive. Within Colombia there are
parts of the treaty, particularly the one that makes the Americans
immune from Colombia's laws, which are politically controversial.
Santos vows that cooperation with the United States, and US military
assistance, will not be affected by the court's ruling, but it seems
likely that there will be a renegotiation of some of the treaty's terms
before it goes to the Congress.
Thus PANAMAX 2010 is not as originally conceived, but a series of
lower-keyed war games in Norfolk, Virginia; Mayport, Florida; Panama
and Colombia. The spectacular pictures of games past in Panama will
mostly not be seen. There will be fewer foreign sailors, cops and
soldiers getting a few hours or a day of leave coming into Panama City
to spend a bit of money.
And what will be practiced here? On their website, the US Southern
Command describes it as:
-
Visit, Board,
Search and Seizure (VBSS)
-
Entry Control
Point training
-
Riverine patrols
-
Open water diving
operations
However, the Panamanian National Aeronaval Service (SENAN) chief of
operations, Jesús Rodríguez, described this
year's PANAMAX war games as predicated on defending the canal from a
"campesino threat." It does seem that provoking rural uprisings by
dispossessing communities in order to make way for strip mines and
hydroelectric dams is one of the risks that the Martinelli
administration is ready to take, but it also seems likely that the
politicians and military commanders in Washington would be annoyed by
the characterization.
The 18 nations participating in this year's maneuvers are Argentina,
Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, the United States and Uruguay.
Colombia,
August 13: Chief petty officer selectees lead the chief's mess in
morning physical training in the well deck of the amphibious transport
dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18) as the ship performs counter
illicit-trafficking operations off the coast of Colombia during
Southern Partnership Station 2010. Southern Partnership Station is an
annual deployment of US military training teams to the US Southern
Command area of responsibility. US Navy photo by Senior Chief
Mass Communication Specialist Robert Winkler
