By Augusto Taglioni
According to sources consulted by LaPoliticaOnline, Paraguay has defined the Mariscal Estigarribia Airport as a base, but a 1989 agreement between Brazil and the U.S. prevents it.
“Paraguay is more an ally of the U.S. than the U.S. is with Paraguay,” they accuse.
The possible presence of the military in the waterway, anticipated by LPO, sparked intense discussions within the Paraguayan political system.
This is not a new idea. In 2016 Horacio Cartes promoted a project with American engineers but included kilometers of Formosa, Argentine territory.
Finally, a scandal through, and the project was shelved.
Read also: Check out our coverage on Paraguay.
Now, Abdo takes up the idea of adding North American capital and summoning military engineers to carry out a new study that will allow the completion of a work that Paraguay considers key due to the volume of commercial flow of that “maritime highway.”
The decision fell badly in Argentina.
First, the Legislature of the province of Chacho condemned the initiative with a draft resolution voted unanimously, as revealed exclusively by LPO.
This generated the reaction of the Paraguayan opposition, which presented a project in the Paraguayan Congress requesting details of “the existing projects in the sovereign section of the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, indicating its scope.”
In turn, they demanded that the government of Mario Abdo explain whether the initiative “will have international contractors, such as the U.S. Corps of Engineers or any other company or entity that does not belong to Paraguay, and what will be the legal mechanism for which these services will be contracted, and obligations will be established for the Paraguayan State.”
But the Paraguayan intention to offer the United States a platform in the region is not limited to the Hidrovía.
Sources from the ruling Colorado Party confirmed to LPO that the structure for installing a U.S. military base was already defined. It was the Mariscal Estigarribia Airport, located near the Paraguayan Chaco.
It is an airport enabled only for small international flights, which receives only about 30 private flights per month.
“The idea of the military base was always the airport, but Brazil put the brakes there,” the sources consulted confirmed to LPO.
There is an essential military agreement between Brazil and the United States since the Brazilian support for Washington’s invasion of Panama was carried out during the mandate of George Bush Sr. in 1989, which overthrew the dictator Noriega.
“Brazil, at that time presided over by José Sarney, was the only Latin American country to support the invasion. That was in exchange for the U.S. not installing or supporting a military presence near Brazil. And we are Brazil’s backyard,” the source of the Colorado Party confirmed to LPO.
The importance of a U.S. military base in Paraguay does not have cracks among the Colorados; in fact, there is an underlying claim: “We are more allies of the United States than the United States is with us.”
The idea, however, is still around, and as LPO revealed, the United States is also analyzing the possibility of installing a military base in the Triple Frontier area.
With information from LaPoliticaOnline