In a story we’ve been following on a regular basis, America’s enemies are beginning to tighten a circle around us.
From the East comes Russia. Iran threatens us in the Middle East. In the Pacific China menaces our allies and interests in that region. But perhaps nowhere is the danger greater and growing than from down below our own Southern border.
Over the decades we’ve seen how communist Cuba has been a thorn. Now that the Marxists have recovered Nicaragua and gained Venezuela, the peril becomes more dire. Colombia and Bolivia are on the brink of looking to Russia and China for support. Combine this with the Chinese manufacture and Mexican distribution of fentanyl and our completely unguarded and open border and you have a recipe for American geopolitical disaster.
These developments are primarily benefiting one power, China. This has not gone unnoticed by Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida. Salazar has briefed colleagues that Argentina, along with Venezuela and Bolivia, are permitting the Chicoms to gain a strong military foothold in Latin America.
“Xi Jinping has been to Latin America more times than President Obama, Trump and Biden combined in the last 10 years. The Chinese are not here for trade. They’re here for war,” warns Salazar.
The Florida congresswoman notes that Argentina is now proposing to open a Chinese fighter jet factory. She also drew attention to a Deep Space Station the size of “400 football fields” in Argentina’s Patagonia desert. “I am sure the Chinese are very interested in studying the stars and every constellation. But the problem is that Argentina has no idea what’s going on there because the Chinese don’t let them in,” said Salazar.
Another analyst expresses similar concerns, “We have no clue what takes place there and neither do the Argentinians. We believe that [China’s] using that as a mechanism to monitor our space activity and otherwise be a collector of intelligence,” said Juan Cruz, former National Security Council senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs
Fox News concurs, “China has a ‘physical presence’ in 25 out of 31 Latin American countries and nearly 30% of its global lending goes to Latin America, according to Salazar’s office. Trade between China and Latin America also grew 26-fold from 2000-2020 – an increase from $12 billion to $315 billion according to the World Economic Forum. This growth is only expected to keep rising, reaching more than $700 billion a year by 2035.”
“We woke up one day and the Chinese were in our neighborhood,” Cruz said. “That displacement takes place not just in business and government [and] diplomatic influence but in terms of technology and what they’re doing around the world with a lot more relevance to U.S. interests.”
All around the globe our adversaries advance because they know there is weak and compromised leadership in Washington. Dangers encircle us and they have a schedule. They know they must move while a Democrat is still in the White House. Tick, tock…