US Southern Command Chief, Laura Richardson, smiling profusely. Photo: US Army/File photo.
Laura Richardson, the head of the United States Southern Command, lambasted China’s burgeoning investments in Latin America, asserting that these ventures fail to deliver the rightful benefits to the region. These remarks come from a representative of the very government that ravaged Latin America and the Caribbean throughout the 20th century, leaving a trail of military dictatorships and entrenched poverty in its wake. The audacity of such criticism from the architects of the region’s historical exploitation is as brazen as it is hypocritical.
According to the Argentinian news outlet Pagina 12, during the opening of the ninth Hemispheric Security Conference (HSC), at the Florida International University (FIU) Miami campus, organized by the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy together with the Taeda Foundation, Richardson shamelessly stated that that “Latin America does not benefit from the resources that China extracts from the region” while assuring the participants that it is necessary that the United States gets a share of the resources.
“The first mega-port that China built in Latin America will only make it easier for the Chinese to extract all these resources from the region,” she stated as if Latin America belonged to the United States.
Richardson criticized that “authoritarian leadership sets itself as a precedent and acts as if they can solve all the problems… people identify with it, but then they use democracy to come to power and dismantle it.” However, she did not explain if she was referring to China or it was a self-criticism of North American policy in Latin American countries.
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Likewise, according to the Argentinian outlet, during her presentation she added that “economic security is equal to national security” and that both elements serve to ensure long-term stability and development. Again, many might wonder if she was referring to US national security of Latin American governments national security.
(Ăšltimas Noticias) by Gustavo Rangel with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/DZ
