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Rumsfeld
meets with Paraguayan president amid concerns over Cuba,
Venezuela
The Cubans are back with a big game.
ASUNCION
(AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with Paraguay's
President Nicanor Duarte Frutos amid concerns over what
US officials see as a Cuban-Venezuelan campaign to subvert
neighboring Bolivia.
Rumsfeld said the subject of Venezuela and Cuba came up
in his talks with Duarte who also discussed on his government's
efforts to combat corruption in this poor, landlocked South
American nation.
"Countries
like Paraguay are interested in growing and functioning
in a manner free of external influence," Rumsfeld told
reporters after the talks at the president's residence.
Attending
the session, which lasted some 90 minutes, were key members
of Duarte's team, including the defense minister and the
chief of defense.
On
the flight to Paraguay, senior US defense officials said
a major purpose of Rumsfeld's fifth trip to Latin America
as defense minister was to sound out the Paraguayans on
their views of Cuba and Venezuela's activities in the region,
particularly Bolivia.
"There
certainly is evidence that both Cuba and Venezuela have
been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways,"
Rumsfeld told reporters as he flew here from Washington.
Rumsfeld
declined to elaborate but senior defense officials accused
the Cuban, backed by Venezuelan money, of seeking to subvert
Bolivia's democratic institutions.
"Very
clearly in the past year we've seen a return of an aggressive
Cuban foreign policy," said one US defense official,
who spoke to reporters traveling with Rumsfeld on condition
of anonymity.
"The
Cubans are back with a big game," he said.
The
officials said Cubahas reactivated its underground networks
throughout the region, particularly in Bolivia where the
government collapsed in June in the face of mass protests
led by Evo Morales, a coca grower and leader of the leftist
Movement Toward Socialism.
The
official said Cubans were providing political guidance,
stimulating street violence and attempting to discredit
the country's democratic institutions.
"The
evidence suggests that Bolivia really is more of a Cuban
project so to speak," the official said.
"To
the degree that subversive activity is going on and they're
trying to wield political influence, it is really the Cubans.
Venezuela is certainly providing funding and some morale
support," he said.
"It's
a concern to all the neighbors. There is an enormous indigenous
population that stretches all up the Andes -- Ecuador, Peru
even in Paraguay," the official said.
A
second defense official suggested Washington also has reappraised
the challenge posed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
a leftist populist who has gained clout from soaring oil
income since surviving a referendum on his rule a year ago.
"A
guy who seemed like a comical figure a year ago is turning
into a real strategic menace," the official said, also
speaking on condition he not be identified.
Washington
initially took a wait-and-see approach after Chavez won
a referendum on his rule last year, the official said.
"But
then we saw within a period of months that he began moving
out very aggressively, both internally and externally,"
he said.
"We
see him trying to strangle pluralistic institutions of the
country at home and then abroad, we see him moving aggressively
in Bolivia, other places, with the Cubans," he said.
The
official said a multi-lateral approach was needed to counter
the Cubans and Venezuelans.
"We
can't respond to it alone. A lot depends on what other countries
down here think," he said.
"So
a lot of the purpose of this trip, and of the secretary's
earlier trips, is to consult with folks in the region to
see what they think. But any strategy has to be as multi-lateral
as can be."
He
said Paraguay and Colombia have taken the developments seriously
while other Latin American governments continue to believe
the Cubans and Venezuelans should be engaged.
Rumsfeld
chose to visit Paraguay to recognize it efforts to strengthen
ties with the United States, combat corruption and encourage
a free market.
Paraguay,
which borders Bolivia as well as Argentina and Brazil, has
hosted a series of small scale US military exercises this
year. Most involve peacekeeping training and medical readiness
teams, but also US special operations forces.
Rumsfeld
praised Paraguay's cooperation in stepping up vigilance
in the tri-border area, an area that traditionally has been
a haven for smugglers operating between Paraguay, Brazil
and Argentina.
"The
kinds of problems that the hemisphere faces are problems
that don't lend themselves to single nation solutions,"
Rumsfeld said.
Secretário de Defesa Donald Rumsfeld e o presidente
do Paraguai Nicanor Duarte
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