Russian and Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere is discussed in the Senate Committee

The growing influence of Russia and China in several countries in the region has become an «urgent threat» said experts during an audience of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the interests of the United States in the Western Hemisphere.

The president of the Committee, Republican James Risch, said on Wednesday that Russia entrusts to the region, carrying out misinformation operations and sending troops, military planes and war ships to Cuba and Nicaragua.

“Chinese money supports the governments of Cuba and Venezuela, and Russian staff ensures that they remain in power. We cannot allow these authoritarian expansions of influence, so we have to answer, ”said the senator.

One of the panelists at the Audience, the deputy director of the Hoover History Laboratory in Stanford’s unidersity, Joseph Ledford, said that the military and Chinese intelligence presence grows in the region. This includes from espionage stations in Cuba to sales of arms and military training programs and exports of surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

“The United States must continue isolating, pressing and promoting democracy in Cuba, Nicaragua Venezuela. The United States must constantly interact with its neighbors … and, finally, Congress must continue working in the western hemisphere and bipartisanly. This sends the strongest signal to the enemies of the United States, ”recommended the expert.

He added that he is also concerned about “the evil influence” of Russia in the western hemisphere and that he believes that it should continue to isolate the countries most associated with Moscow such as Venezuela and Cuba.

The Republican Senator for Florida, Rick Scott, asked the panelists present how much the US has spent on foreign aid for the hemisphere in the last 10 years and what a taxpayer can tell a taxpayer in his state in terms of what has been achieved with such help.

The panelists said they have no exact figures. However, Margaret Myers, main advisor to Inter -American Dialogue, said assistance helps achieve a diversity of long -term objectives.

For her part, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the most rank member of the Committee, indicated that «China’s trade with Latin American countries grows at the same time that Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machinery has flooded Latin America» ​​and said that in the face of these challenges, it is very worrying that the administration has frozen external aid.

He also expressed his hope that the rejection in the Supreme Court of the Trump administration proposal to freeze almost 2 billion dollars in foreign aid leads to the continuation of programs that, in his opinion, «stabilize societies.»