I was reading an article in Foreign Policy in Focus to get an idea of the considerable US Military footprint of 700 bases and just what that means to the world. I think you may appreciate the insights offered in one article called "Yankee's Head Home" and think it is worth a good read because it clearly expresses how we need to withdraw from Latin America and re-open good bilateral relationships with the nations there under a good neighbor policy of non-intervention : Yankees Head Home John Lindsay-Poland March 6, 2008 Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco Foreign Policy In Focus http://www.fpif.org/ Absent in the discussion of the conflict brewing in the Andes over a Colombian military incursion into Ecuador to kill a guerrilla leader is the role of U.S. military in the conflict. It goes well beyond providing satellite intelligence on the location of guerrilla camps: the two countries have opposing responses to Washington’s attempt to militarize the hemisphere. Ecuador’s constitu...

From the Washington Post [h/t Fausta's blog ]: BUENOS AIRES -- After getting caught with contraband like ecstasy tablets and marijuana, a few young Argentines have been asked by judges recently to pay an unexpected price for breaking the nation's drug laws: None at all. That's because separate federal tribunals here have ruled that a law penalizing the personal use of drugs is unconstitutional. Two offenders have been let off the hook in Buenos Aires. And this week another group of judges echoed the ruling after considering the case of a young man arrested with marijuana. "Criminalization will only apply in cases where the possession of narcotics for personal consumption represents a danger for the public health of others," the judges announced. The rulings come as Argentina's government is trying to come up with a new way to handle a growing domestic drug-abuse problem. In the past few years, the local press has been chronicling the rise of paco, a smokable ...