MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Armed Forces changing role

Mercosur Armed Forces are quietly but consistently undergoing a modernization process involving objectives, capability and strategy

According to Argentine political analyst Rosendo Fraga, Brazil with the largest forces in the area, and very concerned about the United States growing involvement in Colombia, has signed arms supply agreements with the European Union, basically France, and president Fernando Cardoso recently agreed a "long term strategic association" with Russia including the joint production of a modern fighter-bomber. Chile for the first time ever has named a woman, and Socialist, as Defence Minister, and one of her first decisions was the purchase of US built F-16 fighter bombers, a "strategic investment" involving 700 million US dollars. In the cooler, for the meantime, a 900 million US dollars project to jointly build German Meko frigates. The Army is in the midst of a ten year plan to restructure the number of land units in the country, from 67 to 38 removing some from areas considered potential "conflict areas" such as in the northern border with Peru and Bolivia, and in the centre and south, with neighbouring Argentina. However the number of Army servicemen, 45,000 will remain intact as well as the budget, 500 million US dollars and the additional 80 million US dollars from the copper surtax for equipment purchases. The new strategic emphasis, following Israel' example, is quick deployment in conflict and natural disaster situations plus United Nations peace mission requests.