{"id":1818531,"date":"2023-01-21T10:35:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-21T15:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1818531"},"modified":"2023-01-21T10:38:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T15:38:03","slug":"u-s-official-discusses-potential-competition-with-china-russia-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-official-discusses-potential-competition-with-china-russia-in-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Official Discusses Potential \u201cCompetition\u201d With China, Russia in Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-official-discusses-potential-competition-with-china-russia-in-latin-america%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1818531&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><br \/>\n<h2 class=\"title-alt-01\"><span class=\"font-color-01\">JUST IN: Senior U.S. Official Warns \u2018Competition\u2019 Russia, China and Latin America<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"article-main-img\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/-\/media\/sites\/magazine\/2023\/01\/istock-503398782_web.jpg?h=500&#038;w=878&#038;la=en&#038;hash=30686C733A9439603E1D250F36CA4775\" alt=\"\"   style=\"display:none\">\n                            <\/div>\n<p class=\"photo-credit\">Photo by iStock<\/p>\n<p><span>Some of the Defense Department\u2019s most pressing adversaries are growing their presence right in the United States&#8217; own backyard, Gen. Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said Jan. 19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>China is considered a terrorist by the Pentagon \u201cpacing challenge\u201d Russia \u201cacute threat\u201d According to the National Defense Strategy, the United States has changed its priorities to avoid conflict with any nation by a variety of modernization efforts that mainly focus on operations in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>However, Richardson noted that Beijing and Moscow\u2019s activities are not isolated to the Eastern Hemisphere and each country has been growing its influence in Central and South America through a variety of projects \u2014 from investments in critical infrastructure to providing military equipment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that we have some competition right here on the 20-yard-line to our homeland \u2014 right here in the red zone,\u201d Richardson spoke at an Atlantic Council event. \u201cWe haven\u2019t had competition like this before, and we have to do things a little bit differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s leverage in the nations within Southcom\u2019s jurisdiction are troubling, she said. She noted that Beijing has been a major trading partner to many Latin American countries, while also investing billions of dollars in infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n<p>For example, 20 nations in Latin America have signed onto the Belt and Road Initiative \u2014 a global infrastructure development program funded by the Chinese government. Richardson stated that Beijing helped finance vital highways, railways, and deep-water ports throughout South and Central America through the project.<\/p>\n<p>She also noted that China is heavily involved in the construction of 5G infrastructure in Latin America. Several nations depend on the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei\u2014 which the United States has banned from sale or import \u2014 as their wireless network providers, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI worry about these dual-use, state-owned enterprises that pop up from the [People\u2019s Republic of China], and I worry about the dual-use capability \u2014 being able to flip them around and use them for military use,\u201d Richardson spoke.<\/p>\n<p>She said that many Latin American countries are still suffering from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected their ability to import new equipment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese partner nations, due to the impacts of their economy, are starting to look at the financing that goes along with it \u2014 not necessarily the quality of the equipment, but who has the best finance deal \u2014 because they can\u2019t afford it so much up front,\u201d She said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Russia\u2019s activities in Latin America are also concerning, and Southcom is working with partner nations to weaken Moscow\u2019s influence, Richardson said.<\/p>\n<p>She said that the command is currently trying to replace Russian-made equipment in nine countries with equipment made in the United States. Countries who do replace their equipment do have the opportunity to donate it to Ukraine\u2019s effort against Russia, she added.<\/p>\n<p>She said that disinformation from Russian media sources is also common in the region. There are spikes of activity in times leading up to crucial elections.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson stressed that the United States has a vital role to play in Central America and South America and that it should be investing more economically as well as continuing to work with its partners nations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis region matters. It has a lot to do with national security, and we need to step up our game, and we need to be faster. And we need to work and deliver capabilities at the speed of relevance for this region,\u201d She said.<\/p>\n<p>\n                                <strong class=\"font-color-01 font-size-02\">Topics:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/articles?Topic={807AFBE8-FE6F-45B3-B2A0-B7B9C7FD2E5A}\">International<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/articles?Topic={54D6C881-A1E6-42D1-BDF5-AE3949193734}\">Defense Department<\/a>\n                            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JUST IN: Senior U.S. Official Warns \u2018Competition\u2019 Russia, China and Latin America Photo by iStock Some of the Defense Department\u2019s most pressing adversaries are growing their presence right in the United States&#8217; own backyard, Gen. Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said Jan. 19. China is considered a terrorist by the Pentagon \u201cpacing challenge\u201d &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1818534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5374,5458,4501,9503,10659,7151,4808,4238,3819,4280,7238],"class_list":["post-1818531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-america","tag-bongino","tag-china","tag-competition","tag-discusses","tag-latin","tag-official","tag-potential","tag-report","tag-russia","tag-u-s"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1818534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}