North Miami-Dade News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairwoman María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) organized a hearing detailing the extent of Chinese influence throughout Latin America, and the national security threat this poses to the United States.

Salazar announced that Communism is once again on our doorstep, and that great power competition has returned to the Western Hemisphere.

“China, in my understanding, is the greatest threat the United States has ever faced,” said Chairwoman Salazar. “If we sit back, we will watch Mandarin replace English as the second language of Latin America, China’s Belt and Road Initiative overtake the USMCA trade deal, a Cold War style military buildup form in our backyard, and communist censorship overwhelm Latin American democracy. It’s time for us to wake up.”

China’s diplomatic, military, and economic presence in Latin America has exploded over the last 20 years. Chinese trade with Latin America has grown by a shocking 3,000% and is predicted to reach $700 billion in the coming years, all while China baits countries into predatory debt traps. Additionally, China has established 40 Confucius Institutes across the Western Hemisphere to promote their communist ideology in Latin America. Chinese military installations have also simultaneously sprung up recently in Argentina and Cuba.

As China invades Latin America, President Biden’s foreign policy has marked a new, troubling era in American foreign policy towards Latin America: showing a welcoming embrace to nations who are allied with China while treating our allies with vindictiveness.

President Biden has never visited South America since assuming office. Chairman Xi Jinping has been to South America 8 times. When pressed by Congresswoman Salazar on why President Biden’s upcoming trip to Chile and Brazil was canceled, Deputy Assistant Secretary Hannan could not give a satisfactory justification. It is obvious that South America is not a priority for the Administration.

Congresswoman Salazar also sought answers regarding the preferential treatment Honduran President Xiomara Castro has received from the White House, including a personal visit from Vice President Kamala Harris to her inauguration.

Despite her professed admiration for the tyrannical regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, it appears the White House refused to heed warnings from other allies in the region about the threat the presidency of Xiomara Castro would pose to the United States.

Honduras is another example of the Biden Administration’s affinity for embracing socialist governments while turning its back on other allies with ‘conservative’ administrations, including those in Guatemala and Paraguay. When asked about the administration’s willingness to attend the likely inauguration of presidential candidate Javier Milei later this year, the State Department made no promise, instead offering lackluster reaffirmation of its goal to maintain a healthy relationship with Argentina if Milei is elected.

Chairwoman Salazar also addressed the Chinese Army’s encroachment in our hemisphere, an unacceptable development occurring as close as 90 miles from our shores. In response to questioning, the State Department also promised to ‘inquire’ into publishing an unclassified report on the Chinese military presence in Cuba at the Congresswoman’s behest.

To counteract the failures of the Biden Administration’s Latin America policy, Chairwoman Salazar has introduced a monumental trade proposal, the Americas Act, to reassert American economic supremacy in the Western Hemisphere by putting the American economy first before Chinese interests. This bill will help us win the trade war with China.

For the Congresswoman’s remarks in Spanish pleading with Latin America to avoid the false promises of the Chinese Communist Trojan Horse, click HERE.

To listen to the full hearing, click HERE.

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Source: Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar