During an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander Gen. Laura Richardson stated that American companies haven’t been bidding for contracts on critical infrastructure in Latin America and the U.S. is getting beaten in that national security area by China.
Richardson said, [relevant remarks begin around 6:05] “I would say that the U.S. is investing the U.S. quality investment, and we are investing in the hemisphere. The problem is, is that leaders don’t see it, the presidents of the countries don’t see it. We have over 800 U.S. companies in Colombia, over 250 U.S. companies in Panama, over 200 in Honduras, who knew? We don’t talk about it, we don’t brag. We don’t talk about the great things that quality U.S. investment brings, transparency, labor rights, environmental standards, we hire local workers. With the People’s Republic of China and the Belt and Road initiative, they bring in their own Chinese laborers. All of those things contribute to the economies of countries. We’ve got to talk about it, and then we also have to have our U.S. companies competing on the contracts for critical infrastructure. We’re not competing on those for deepwater ports, for space or telecommunications and energy. And we need to do that. It’s a matter of national security.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.