FACTBOX: U.S. military operations in Latin America

(Reuters) - Colombia signed a deal on Friday to allow the U.S. military more access to its bases for anti-drug operations after Washington lost use of a base in Ecuador that it had used for surveillance flights.

The Colombian pact has angered some South American neighbors especially Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce U.S. critic who says the plan could trigger war.

Here are details of current U.S. military operations at local installations in Latin America and the Caribbean:

COLOMBIA

U.S. military personnel: approximately 250.

A key operation in the region, the U.S. military in Colombia is involved mainly in training, logistical support and some intelligence backup for the Colombian armed forces to enhance their fight against cocaine traffickers and leftist FARC guerrillas. The United States has provided around $6 billion in aid to Colombia since 2000. American personnel will increase in Colombia under the deal signed on Friday but U.S. law caps staff at 800 military and 600 civilian contractors.

The new pact concentrates on anti-drug surveillance flights and other high-tech efforts at cracking down on traffickers, including Marxist rebels fighting a decades-old insurgency.

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA

U.S. military personnel: approximately 1,900.

The largest operation in Latin America is the joint task force at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel are involved in detention operations on the island.

This base has become famous worldwide for its use in housing suspects in U.S. anti-terrorism operations.

HONDURAS

U.S. military personnel: approximately 600.

Joint task force Bravo at the Soto Cano Air Base, involving Army and Air Force, mainly to support disaster relief operations, humanitarian assistance and anti-drug operations.

EL SALVADOR

U.S. military personnel: approximately 150.

A Forward Operating Location, or FOL, at the Comalapa Air Base installation. Navy officials and air crews are involved in drug surveillance missions in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean basin from the Central American country.

ARUBA-CURACAO

U.S. military personnel: approximately 250.

Another FOL in the Netherlands Antilles islands. Air Force crew and ground and support staff involved in counter-narcotics surveillance operations over the Caribbean.

MANTA, ECUADOR

U.S. military personnel at time of full operation: approximately 250. But the operation was closed this year by order of the Ecuadorean government.

The FOL operation on Ecuador's Pacific coast was once a key piece in its counter-narcotics surveillance operations. Before leftist President Rafael Correa decided not to renew the deal, the base carried out more than 5,000 drug surveillance flights

* Information from U.S. Southern Command, U.S. State Department.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey and Hugh Bronstein in Bogota, editing by Alan Elsner)