The US Moves Its Pieces Invoking a New Marshall Plan

The commander of the United States Southern Command (Southcom), Laura Richardson, appealed during the Aspen 2024 Security Forum that her country should focus on a new “Marshall Plan” if the countries of the Western Hemisphere are to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to keep the influence of Russia and, especially, China at bay.

The ‘Marshall Plan’ was an ambitious program implemented by the United States (US) for the economic reconstruction of Europe in 1948, after the Second World War.

The 15th annual Aspen 2024 Forum, held in Colorado from Tuesday, July 16 to Friday, July 19, was attended by senior US government and military officials, as well as their counterparts from around the world, senior business executives, leading academics, journalists and others. The central theme was related to national security and foreign policy.

General Laura Richardson in the Aspen Forum

Along those lines, Richardson warned that some countries may have overcome the effects of the pandemic, but most are in a “severe economic recession,” which is supposedly being exploited by Russian and Chinese investments in the region.

“And we don’t have those kinds of tools in our bag.” How can we help? I strongly believe that we need a Marshall Plan for the region, or what amounts to the same thing, an economic recovery act like the one in 1948, but in 2024, 2025,” General Richardson pointed out.

During the event, the Southcom spokeswoman also endorsed the Trade and Investment in the Americas Act (Americas Act), introduced earlier this year by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-Los Angeles) and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) and Representatives Maria Salazar (R-Florida) and Adriano Espaillat (D-New York).  

This bill is primarily focused on strengthening the economic security of this country. It urges the United States to renew its policy toward Latin America with a comprehensive approach, and to expand the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to other countries in the Western Hemisphere. It also urges U.S. companies to relocate, with the goal of substantially weakening the presence of Russia and China.

“In our security strategy we talk about how the [Western] hemisphere is inextricably linked to the security of our homeland,” the Southcom spokeswoman added at the Forum. The Southern Command is one of the nine military commands belonging to the United States and covers the area related to the south of the American continent, Central America and the Caribbean. It is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

China and Russia’s advance

The commander mentioned the shattering advance of Chinese and Russian investments in her area of operations and showed her concern for not being able to contain them, warning that they could take a turn and be used for military operations. “I have met with at least two-thirds of the presidents in my region, but they don’t see what Team USA is bringing to the countries (…) all they see are the Chinese cranes (…) and the [Chinese] Belt and Road Initiative projects,” the general noted.

As the geopolitical pieces move in the region, the U.S. does not seem to have the capacity to respond, “we can’t move fast enough,” said the Southern Command representative who called on allied countries to allow their troops to visit.

Humanitarian aid

Meanwhile, the US continues to use its old strategy of “humanitarian aid” to maintain its presence in the American continent. Thus, prior to the Aspen 2024 Forum, in June, the US Navy deployed more than 100 military personnel to Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia and Panama, under the slogan “Forward Together.”

“This is our common neighborhood,” said Jim Aiken, commander of the 4th Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, at the start of the deployment, now in its 14th year.

According to the Southern Command this is a mission whose objective is to promote “friendship and solidarity with partners and allies in the Caribbean and Central and South America.” It is part of the strategy that has been implemented and renewed since 2007, with the so-called “U.S. Southern Command Strategy of Friendship and Cooperation for the Americas.” 

At the Aspen Forum, Richardson assured that the Southern Command works closely, in each country, with U.S. ambassadors, the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NASA, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), U.S. Chambers of Commerce, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and human rights and non-governmental organizations. 

“I really believe that economic security and national security go hand in hand here in this hemisphere, and we have to work both together very, very quickly,” stated Major Richardson.

Original article by Santiago Navarro F. published by Avispa Midia on July 24, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.

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