NEED TO KNOW

Port of Call

LATIN AMERICA

American Gen. Laura Richardson, who oversees US military operations in Latin America, recently told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that the US needs a new approach to counter Russian and Chinese – especially Chinese – influence in the region.

Richardson called on American policymakers to launch an economic aid program for Latin America akin to the Marshall Plan for Europe that was implemented after World War II, reported bne IntelliNews. This program should be designed, Richardson said, to match Russia and China’s closer trade and diplomatic ties in “America’s backyard.”

Richardson’s view was also nuanced. While she said Russia’s operations in Cuba, Venezuela, and elsewhere are important, she believes China especially is a new, major player whose entrance is already driving changes in trade and diplomacy in the region.

In a recent story in the Economist describing China’s expanding influence in Latin America, for example, the writer led with a description of the new 20,000-foot-long breakwater for the new port under construction in Chancay on the Pacific Coast of Peru. The Chinese company Cosco built the port – with $1.3 billion already invested in it – around 40 miles north of the capital of Lima. Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to attend the facility’s inauguration in November.

The US, alarmed by the Peruvian port venture, is now competing with China to develop Punta Arenas, a Chilean port that could serve as a perfect stop for ships sailing in growing trading networks traversing the southern hemisphere, wrote Americas Quarterly. Low water levels in the Panama Canal, Middle Eastern wars and radical militants and also pirates targeting shipping lanes, and more trade in commodities like green hydrogen have increased merchant traffic in the Strait of Magellan by 83 percent compared with 2021, for instance.

Besides political and business concerns, critics like US Army War College political scientist R. Evan Ellis fear China will seek to export its authoritarianism to Latin America as it builds this critical infrastructure. “China is increasingly active in Latin America and other parts of the world in conducting training programs in China for professionals from the region,” Ellis noted in the Diplomat. “Problematically, these trainings are rife with authoritarian content and narratives.”

Chinese officials undoubtedly have tried to strongarm local leaders into adopting pro-China policies, like banning coffee imports from Guatemala due to the country’s recognition of Taiwan’s independence, as Reuters explained. Moves like these have angered Latin American leaders, including Brazilian fashion retailers who resent losing business to cheap Chinese textiles, added Deutsche Welle.

However, Latin Americans keep accepting Chinese cash and investment. Trade between the two sides grew to $315 billion in 2020 compared with $12 billion in 2000. That number is likely to increase to $700 billion through the next decade, according to the Miami Herald.

The business of international relations is business, analysts say, and in this region, that trade is booming.

To read the full edition and support independent journalism, join our community of informed readers and subscribe today!