U.S. Military Moves in Paraguay Rattle Regional Relations

By Sam Logan and Matthew Flynn

Both U.S. and Paraguayan officials are emphatic in saying that there is no permanent base in the works, yet the construction of an airstrip in the northern region of Paraguay suggests at the very least the possibility of a tighter military relationship. The airstrip at Mariscal Estigarribia, located close to the borders of Bolivia and Brazil, is 3,800 meters long and 80 meters wide-large enough to handle large transport aircraft and bigger than the national airport in Asuncion, the country’s capital city. U.S. support for the construction since the 1980s had gone unnoticed until recently, but the immunity agreement and military training program have increased suspicions that the United States is building a stronghold in a region that is increasingly being defined as strategic to that country’s interests.

Sam Logan and Matthew Flynn are journalists based
in South America and are contributors to the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, at www.irc-online.org.

See new IRC commentary online at: http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2991

With printer-friendly pdf version at: http://americas.irc-online.org/pdf/reports/0512paraguay.pdf