(The following article is from the June 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

The U.S. 4th Fleet was re-established in late April, commanded by Rear Admiral Joseph D. Kernan. The Fleet will be responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area, which encompasses the Caribbean, and Central and South America and the surrounding waters.

     The original U.S. 4th Fleet was established in 1943, with a specific World War Two mission to protect against raiders, blockade runners and Axis submarines in the South Atlantic. In 1950, the U.S. 2nd Fleet took over responsibilities in this geographic area.

     The 4th Fleet's stated mission is to direct U.S. naval forces operating in the SOUTHCOM area, and to "interact with partner nation navies within the maritime environment." Its operations include "counter-illicit trafficking, Theater Security Cooperation, military-to-military interaction and bilateral and multinational training. "

     "Reconstituting the Fourth Fleet recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere, and sends a strong signal to all the civil and military maritime services in Central and Latin America," said U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, making the official announcement.

     That "strong signal" is widely seen as a warning by U.S. imperialism to the progressive forces reshaping the region's politics and economies.

     Socorro Gomes, the Brazilian President of the World Peace Council, condemned the move as "designed to engage in aggressive naval missions in the Caribbean, Central and South America" and as "a severe threat to peace, security and sovereignty to all peoples and nations of Latin America."

     "By endorsing the Colombian military action in Ecuadorian territory," continued Gomes, "the government of the United States attempted to apply to our continent the principles of preventive war, a fascist doctrine at service of State terrorism. Now, as the Fourth Fleet is reestablished, the United States brings to the continent militarization, arms race and nuclear threat - for the Fourth Fleet will be equipped with nuclear aircraft carriers. Such a measure deserves our most vehement rejection. That is also what we are expecting from progressive governments, popular movements and patriotic leaderships in the whole region.

     "Our concern and protest are extended to joint naval exercises held in the Brazilian coastline with the participation of the United States, Argentina, and Brazil in the occasion of the 49th UNITAS operation. During 12 days nuclear-powered and nuclear-equipped U.S. ships will perform military exercises in Brazilian territorial waters being headed by the George Washington, the nuclear aircraft carrier that is considered the greatest weapon of

the United States, loaded with nuclear torpedoes, Tomahawks and high-depth nuclear bombs, as well as aircrafts loaded with six to ten nuclear bombs. Our patriotic conscience cannot accept such exercises as routine acts. They are aggressive in character. Their existence and frequent operation tarnish the sovereignty of the countries that take part in and provide the backdrop to those exercises.

     "The reestablishment of the U.S. Fourth Fleet as an aggressive interventionist force and the military exercises practised in the South Atlantic Ocean are part of the United States' imperialism and war policy, against which rises the democratic, independent and pacifist conscience of Latin American peoples, as well as the peace movements in the region and all over the world."