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Observatorio Latinoamericano de Salud.America and focuses on those places where their interestsreside.In Colombia, with the pretext of combating thedrug trade, the U.S.A. has invested more than 3.000million US dollars already in the Colombia Plan, and itplans to invest 700 million more by 2005 in the PatriotPlan; public opinion has criticized the credibility ofsuch justification. The U.S.A. organized the heroinmarket in Vietnam (1960), and made use of it in Laos(60) with heroin, in Nicaragua (70) with coke, in Afghanistan(80) with heroin, and in Kosovo (90) with heroin.Such support of the drug trade would indicatethat the intention is not to extinguish it in Colombiabut rather to once again use it as the vehicle to financeother objectives. If there were a true will to stopdrug trade, the US would confront major banks, includingCitibank, the Bank of America and the main banksof Miami and other cities, where they launder drugmoney—The U.S. Senate acknowledges between250.000 and 500.000 million US dollars a year—withabsolute impunity, in Central America and the SouthCone, the pretext is international terrorism, whichsimply is used to veil the U.S.’s economical and strategicinterests.The military strategy for Latin America designedby the South Command implies three aspects:a) Establishing a presence in the territory with militarybases, sending more than 50,000 soldiers eachyear to Latin America and the Caribbean.Althoughthe U.S.A. already owns 14 bases and there are 6more underway, smaller installations are numerousas well as those in combination with national states.All of them are deployed in the zones of interest,due to the resources found in those areas.b) The subordination of the Latin-American armedforces to the U.S.A., by means of joint armies (Cabañas,Águila, Unitas, Cielos Centrales, Nuevos Horizontes,Fluvial, etc.), which endangered the land,marine and aerial armies; and the programs of education,considered the chief mechanism with whichto create a dependence of Latin-American armedforces on the U.S.A. From 2000 to 2003, the U.S.A.trained 65,941 soldiers from 27 Latin-American andCaribbean countries, of which 43% (28,200) areColombian, and if one adds those coming from otherAndean countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela),they total 64%. From Central America,9,886 soldiers were trained (15%); from the SouthCone, 9.7%; and from the Caribbean, 7.2%. This inseveral ways uncovers the interests the U.S.A. hasin the different regions.The ‘School of the Americas,’ also called the ‘schoolof dictators,’ is sadly celebrated at the moment inFort Benning, for having increased the power andimplementation of torture as a war weapon: the publicationof training manuals on torture is proof ofthat.The New York Times has mentioned the existenceof "eleven secret manuals" in the School ofthe Americas, through which "interrogatory techniques,forms of torture, blackmailing, and imprisonmentof relatives were developed". Since 1961 tothe present, more than 60,000 Latin-American soldiershave been trained in that school, of whichnearly 500 are accused of war crimes.The visible outcome is that the presidents of Hondurasand El Salvador have already requested thecreation of a regional army, under the command ofthe U.S.A. George W. Bush has proposed the creationof a multinational operative marine force of theAmericas identified as "Lasting Friendship," obviouslyunder the command of the U.S.A.c) The development of mercenary armies, which cando what international legality impedes. They are43