Unasur agrees to summit on US bases in Colombia

South American presidents expressed deep concerns Monday with a planned U.S. military expansion in Colombia, but failed to reach consensus on a joint statement rejecting U.S. long-term leases on Colombian bases.

The leaders agreed to hold a presidential summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, later this month to discuss the matter after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez raised it during a ceremony to inaugurate Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa as temporary president of the Union of South American Nations, or Unasur.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, of Brazil, Cristina Fernandez, of Argentina, Evo Morales, of Bolivia, Fernando Lugo, of Paraguay, and Ecuador’s Correa also expressed unease with the plan.

“I don’t want to sabotage your ceremony Rafael … (but) we are very worried,” said Chavez, who added that he believes the bases will destabilize the region.

“This could provoke a war in South America,” Chavez said. During his weekly television and radio address Sunday the Venezuelan president told his military to be “ready for combat” in case of a Colombian provocation.

Unasur is a continentwide alliance established to cool political tensions and streamline trade blocs, but efforts to forge a European Union-style international governing community have been stymied by the region’s fractious politics. The organization’s launch was postponed for several months last year following Colombia’s cross-border raid in March on a guerrilla camp in Ecuador.

Ecuador broke ties with Colombia over the attack and relations have further soured since Colombia released a video in which the FARC’s No. 2 leader mentions contributions to Correa’s 2006 presidential campaign.

Correa’s approval ratings spiked after the Colombian raid and he became the first Ecuadorean president in three decades to win re-election without a runoff in April. He assumed his new four-year term in a ceremony Monday after the Unasur summit.

Chavez said Monday that a similar cross-border attack into Venezuela would be greeted with “a blunt military response.”

Tensions between Venezuela and Colombia have increased over Colombia’s recent disclosure that three Swedish-made anti-tank weapons found at a rebel camp last year had been purchased by Venezuela’s military.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe toured South America last week to defend his base agreement with the U.S., which he said is aimed at combating drug trafficking and leftist rebels. Peru was the only country to openly back the plan.

Uribe did not visit Ecuador and Venezuela, the plan’s staunchest opponents, nor did he attend the Unasur summit.

U.S. officials haven’t released details, but Colombians have said U.S. forces would have access to at least seven Colombian bases. They say there would be no more than 1,400 American personnel and contractors in the country.

About 600 U.S. military personnel already work in Colombia and advisers have trained thousands of Colombian troops since 2000.

Unasur foreign ministers could not reach a joint statement regarding the U.S. bases late Sunday, prompting Monday’s impromptu debate, which also failed to produce a consensus.

Silva called on President Barack Obama to meet with the region’s presidents to explain the plan.

“As president of Brazil, this climate of unease disturbs me,” Silva said Monday. He agreed to a presidents’ summit, to be held Aug. 27 following a meeting of foreign and defense ministers to study U.S. military presence in Colombia, which was agreed upon in pre-summit meetings late Sunday.

“I think we should directly discuss our discontent with the American government – directly with them,” he said.

Silva said he was concerned with “information we receive about (U.S.) ambassadors that still intervene in internal electoral processes in their countries” and the reactivation of the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet.

The Fourth Fleet, originally dissolved after World War II, was resurrected in April 2008. Based in Mayport, Florida, as part of the U.S. Southern Command, it deploys Navy ships, aircraft and submarines on humanitarian and counter-drug operations in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Last week in Brazil, the U.S. national security adviser, Jim Jones, acknowledged the deal could have been explained better to the region’s leaders and said the U.S. would send military officials to interested countries “to make sure everybody understands what this is and what this isn’t.”

Colombia’s vice foreign minister defended the bases Monday, saying they will not affect outside nations.

“The bases will continue to be completely under Colombian jurisdiction and sovereignty,” said Clemencia Forero.