Russia - Latin Americas Relations And "The Western Americas Strategic Security Act"

nakedcapitalism  |  For its part, Washington is growing increasingly concerned about the growing influence of Russia and China in its own direct neighborhood and is very quickly pivoting back to Latin America. As I said in my last article, the Pentagon appears to be leading the way, which is not a good sign. Speaking this week at the Aspen Security Forum, the Commander of US Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, had the following to say about Latin America:

This region is so rich in resources. It’s off the chart rich. And they have a lot to be proud of and our competitors and adversaries also know how rich in resources this region is. Sixty percent of the world’s lithium is in the region, you have heavy crude, you have light sweet crude, you have rare earth elements, you have the Amazon, which is called the lungs of the world. You have 31% of the world’s fresh water in this region.

And there our adversaries are taking advantage of this region every single day, right in our neighborhood. And I just look at what happens in this region in terms of security [and it] impacts our security and national security in the homeland and the United States.

Moves are also being made on the Hill. In the past few days U.S. Senators Bob Menendez, D-NJ, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., both descendants of Cuban immigrants, were also able to get their bill to bolster “bilateral and multilateral security cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean” as well as “disrupt and counter illicit narcotics trafficking” through the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rubio introduced the “Western Hemisphere Security Strategy Act” with Menendez, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as a co-sponsor in February. The bill seeks to counter what the senators perceive as the “harmful and malign influence” in Latin America of China and Russia, contending that the “destabilizing” role of authoritarian governments in Beijing and Moscow represent unique threats to U.S. national security interests as well as the region’s welfare.

“It is imperative for the United States to be strategic and proactive in strengthening security partnerships with democracies throughout the Americas,” Menendez added. “This bill recognizes the geopolitical significance of Latin America.”

As AP reported in February, the bill, if approved, “would require the Secretaries of State and Defense to jointly submit within 180 days a strategy to enhance diplomatic engagement and security assistance in the Western Hemisphere on issues ranging from drug trafficking to transnational crime. Concrete steps would include increasing military training exercises with partner nations and efforts to improve their capacity to conduct disaster relief operations.”

At the same time, Russia, China and Iran, together with 10 other allied countries, are preparing to participate in a series of war games this August in Venezuela, a country that is currently negotiating reestablishing economic ties with Washington after five years of brutal sanctions. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s ties with fellow US-sanctioned Russia, Iran and Cuba have never been closer.

In a recent report the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), a Washington-based think tank, described the military exercises as “a strategic movement that seeks to preposition military assets deployed in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The text features an apt quote from Russian President Vladimir Putin on the end of the unipolar world, saying that in Washington they have not yet realized that “new powerful centers have formed and are making themselves known more and more loudly.”