The naval exercise will be held between June 27 and August 2 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2024) in hawaiithe world’s largest war game, which is coordinated by the Indo-Pacific Command of the United States Navy (Third Fleet), with the aim of strengthening its ties with the navies of several countries in the region and maintaining the hegemony of USA in a context of international struggle for access to strategic natural resources and control of sea lanes.
The war games have been held since 1971 and this time they will have the participation of 29 states under the motto ‘Integrated and prepared partners’ and whose graphic image is the tips of a trident pointing to a sun setting in the sea.
The naval operation involves 43 warships, three submarines, more than 150 aircraft and 25 thousand military personnel. All, obviously, will be under the command of the vice admiral of the Third Fleet of the US Navy, Michael Boyle.
These naval exercises are part of the control of the Indo-Pacific which the United States Navy is betting on, as a form of containing the commercial influence of China in the region, while consolidating its military hegemony in both oceans.
NATO ALLIES AND CHILE’S PARTICIPATION
The first phase of the naval exercises includes a stage called Force Integration Trainingan instance in which the United States Navy takes advantage of generating ties with naval officers from the 29 countries participating in the meeting, ties that allow for strengthening North American hegemony in the formation and formulation of strategic analyzes of said naval bodies.
Among the participants are several European countries that participate in the NATO, as well as allies in the southern seas of the United States. It is the case of Canada, Germany, England, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. Of Oceania they arrived Tonga, Australia and New Zealand.
You are also invited Israel.
Several naval forces from Asian countries also attend the meeting, such as Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The armies of Latin America who participate in the meeting organized by the US Navy are Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Chili.
Chile began participating in this naval meeting in 1996, totaling 12 occasions. On this occasion she commanded the anti-submarine frigate FF-06 Admiral Condellan attack helicopter Airbus AS332F1 Cougar of the HA-1 Squadron of the Naval Aviation already a platoon of Marine Corps (CIM).
When the Frigate Almirante Condell – under the command of the captain Carlos Ruiz– set sail for Hawaii on May 27, the commander in chief of the Navyadmiral Juan Andrés De La Maza, stated that “we have high expectations for this ship that, for the first time, is going to participate in the RIMPAC exercise, we also have high expectations for the exercise itself, because it is the first time that the United States Navy has entrusted us and asked us, and for some time, assume the leadership of the exercise at the highest level. “We are going to serve as Second Commander of the exercise, which is a step a little higher than what we had been in 2018.”
THE TIES WITH THE CHILEAN NAVY
To strengthen ties with Latin American countries, Laura Richardson -head of the Southern Command of USA– deployed a program of visits in the region, which brought her to Chile in April of last year and at the beginning of June 2024 Argentina.
His visit was accompanied by a tour of the aircraft carrier in Latin American waters. George Washingtonmember of the Fourth Fleet of the United States, which passed through the Strait of Magellan, after visiting Brazil and Argentina. Then he left for Peru.
The aircraft carrier also carried out naval maneuvers with ships from the navies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.
Meanwhile, Richardson’s agenda in Chile was intense. She arrived on June 11 and accompanied by the ambassador Bernadette Meehanmet the same day with the Minister of Defense, Maya Fernandez Allendeand the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Rear Admiral Pablo Niemann Figariin what was billed as a meeting “to talk about defense cooperation.”
The United States, in addition to naval exercises, grants internships to Latin American officers in its schools and rewards their loyalty by placing them as secondary leaders in war games. This is the case of Rear Admiral Niemann, who graduated in 2010 from the Naval Command College in the Newport War Academyof the North American Navy and appeared as commander of the maritime forces of the Rimpac 2018 exercises, obviously under the supervision of United States officers.
“We can have control of maritime traffic, secure areas against piracy and eventually assume a role in breaking the adversary’s will to fight,” said Niemann in an interview with Infodefense.
THE PRESENCE OF THE UNITED STATES IN LATIN AMERICA
The global presence of North American military units is 800 bases outside their territory, 76 of these being in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In addition to Guantanamoused by the United States as a torture center, it is estimated that, at the beginning of 2023, the northern power had 12 military bases installed in Panamaanother dozen in Puerto Riconine in Colombia, eight in Peru, three in Honduras and two in Paraguayamong others, whose presence is more opaque, such as in the naval base of Quintero in Chile.
Recently, too, the administration of Joe Biden has taken advantage of the subordination of the Argentine president, Javier Mileito announce the installation of a new base in the Patagonia Argentina, which would allow it to strengthen its control of the southern seas and access to the Antarctica.
North American policy on the region has also been concerned with establishing alliances with the armies and navies of some Latin American countries. Thus, Argentina (1998), Brazil (2019) and Colombia (2022) have been designated as ‘Extra-NATO Allies’, a country that was also invited to be a “global partner” of NATO in 2017.
Similarly, the United States Southern Command has been conducting multinational military exercises for decades, such as operations UNITES, Tradewinds, PANAMAX, Southern Cross and PASSEX.
At the end of recent May and after 10 years of being suspended, the exercises were carried out in Argentina PASSEX Gringo-Gaucho II, in which the navies of Argentina and the United States participated. In a clear alignment, the publicity by the Milei government of these operations highlighted that “this exercise allows increasing interoperability with another Navy – with standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) -, to practice procedures and articulate defenses within a possible formation of a Maritime Task Force.”
Meanwhile, the Chilean frigate Almirante Condell participated in the PASSEX exercises alongside the French navy in mid-May, an opportunity in which the Gauls took advantage of collecting information about the southern seas of Chile.
Later, the Chilean Navy also conducted PASSEX exercises with the aircraft carrier George Washington.
For September 2024, the Chilean Navy organizes a new UNITAS meeting in Valparaíso.
JOINING FORCES AGAINST CHINA
RIMPAC 2024 also turns out to be a strong message for China, in the struggle they maintain for control of sea lanes and access to natural resources. Therefore, in the region Pacific Asia They maintain hundreds of bases surrounding the Asian giant.
The largest number of US military installations in the region are in Japanwhere it is estimated that there are 57,300 troops stationed in at least 120 bases, such as the Air Base of Yokota and that of naval forces in Yokosuka. Another important base is located in Okinawa.
South Korea It is the second country with the most North American troops in the region, reaching 28,500 soldiers in 73 bases, such as the Air Base of Osan and the Army Base Humphreys.
On the island of guamthe United States has the Air Base of Andersenwhich constitutes an important strategic platform.
Although the majority of these bases were installed at the end of the Second World Warsince the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clintonannounced more than a decade ago a strategic shift by the United States called ‘pivot in Asia-Pacific’, preparations began for a military confrontation with China, commented journalist Pablo Gandolfo.
Laura J. Richardson, head of the United States Southern Command, at a session of a commission of the Senate North American on March 23, 2023, warned that his country must avoid Chinese and Russian influence in Latin America.
“The world is at a turning point. Our partners Those in the Western Hemisphere, with whom we are linked by trade, shared values, democratic traditions and family ties, are feeling the impact of external interference and coercion. The People’s Republic of China “continues to expand its economic, diplomatic, technological and military influence in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Richardson.
The general did not hide on the occasion that the main focus of the United States is the mineral resources of the Latin American region, such as lithium. “The People’s Republic of China has expanded its ability to extract resources, sourcing 36% of its food through imports from this region, and 75% of its lithium from South America”- he stated.
THE CONTROVERSIAL PARTICIPATION OF ISRAEL
In the last decade, several anti-militarist, climate and indigenous peoples’ organizations have demonstrated against these naval exercises, due to being another mechanism in the maintenance of US imperialism and European colonial interests in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
In Hawaii, US military bases and war exercises have caused serious destruction to aquifers in Oahu and its coral reefs.
According to the organization Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against the genocide practiced by Israel in Palestineparticipation in RIMPAC 2024 “is complicity with the US-Israel criminal axis.”
Through a statement they point out that, “unfortunately, nations from the global south such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and others will also participate in this exercise.”
BDS They call “on the movements of all participating States, especially those that claim to defend the rights of the Palestinians, to pressure their governments to withdraw from it. States that have already imposed military embargo or diplomatic sanctions on Israel should never participate in RIMPAC 2024 together with the genocidal regime.”
By Mauricio Becerra R.
The citizen
