After the head of the US Southern Command, Laura Richardson, clarified why Latin America is important to the White House, the Venezuelan Defense Minister, General in Chief Vladimir Padrino López, the presidents of Bolivia, Luis Arce and Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, together with other regional leaders, rejected the intentions confessed by the person who leads the combat fleet that Washington deploys in Latin American waters.
On January 21, during a conversation with the Atlantic Council ‘think tank’, Richardson explained that the government of US President Joe Biden must “intensify its game” in the region where “there is much to do” to control “all its rich resources and rare earth elements” and referred to the main interest in “the lithium triangle, which today is necessary for technology.”
The US general was categorical in how “60% of the world’s lithium is in the lithium triangle: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile” and referred to “the largest oil reserves”, such as those of “light and sweet crude discovered off Guyana more than a year ago” and “Venezuela’s resources too, with oil, copper, gold,” and highlighting his government’s interest in the Amazon, “the lungs of the world,” he said.
Venezuela’s response
After the testimony of the head of the US fleet, the Venezuelan Defense Minister stressed that Latin America is no longer a land to be plundered and highlighted how a joint geopolitical leadership is developing in the region around the new realities that point to the multicentric world and movement that is an essential part of the policies of the Bolivarian Government and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which on Tuesday held its VII summit of presidents, men and women heads of State and Government in Argentina.
«The empire (US Government) is right about the amount of strategic resources that this region has. But Latin America is no longer a piece of land to plunder. Here an emerging geopolitical block is being built that will be key in the construction of a New Multipolar World Order,” Padrino wrote on Twitter.
Cuba’s warning
For his part, Díaz-Canel, visiting the Argentine capital for the Celac summit, described the statement as “disgraceful” and highlighted how Richardson “brings to light the true purposes of the United States.”
«They have always treated us as a backyard, they have looked at us with contempt and they have put their interests first. There is no willingness to cooperate and work together with Latin America,” said the Cuban president in an interview with the Argentine tiktoker Bruno Lonatti.
Díaz-Canel reiterated how, in Latin America, the White House intends to “fracture the identity, culture and essence” of the peoples and “also wants to seize our natural resources,” he said.
«I think that once again the face of imperialism is exposed by its own people and that says a lot about the moment of decomposition and fracture that it is experiencing, which leads it to make expressions like these, so misplaced, so incorrect, so arrogant,” he added.
Bolivia will defend its sovereignty
Meanwhile, Bolivian President Luis Arce, also visiting Buenos Aires for the Celac summit, expressed his concern over Richardson’s words, this during an interview with Telam, where he recalled that it is not the first time that the White House refers to the wealth of Latin America, and regarding the direct allusion to Bolivia’s lithium reserves, estimated at 21 million tons in the Uyuni salt flats; the largest in the world, he said that his country is going to “defend sovereignty.”
“We are not going to accept any imposition from anyone or that anyone claim our natural wealth as their own,” he said, recalling that Argentina, Bolivia and Chile have the world’s largest lithium reserves; the so-called ‘white gold’.
“The history of our country has been that of the looting of our natural resources,” said the Bolivian president, explaining that since Bolivia nationalized gas in 2006 and later with the industrialization of lithium, his country “makes a difference in its economic model”.
Arce added that with natural resources his nation manages to “generate economic surpluses for Bolivians” with which to “improve the quality of life, reduce poverty and inequalities… And we are going to continue doing that, it is strategic for our development, not to maintain exploitation from one country to another,” he snapped.
Another leader, the former Bolivian president, Evo Morales, considered that, with his statements, Richardson launched a “new interventionist threat” and replied to the US military chief that the region is not the US’s backyard or a property to plunder.
“We remind the head of the US Southern Command, Laura Richardson, that Latin America is not a backyard or her farm to exploit natural resources. Faced with the new Yankee interventionist threat, we reiterate that the free peoples of the Great Homeland will defend their sovereignty,” Morales said in his message.
Leaders of Argentina and Colombia join the repudiation
For her part, Alicia Castro, Argentine diplomat, politician and trade unionist; Former Argentine ambassador to Venezuela, she warned about Richardson’s confession regarding US plans for lithium from Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.
“The commander of the SOUTHCOM Southern Command, Laura Richardson, describes how Washington is actively negotiating the sale of lithium in the countries of the Lithium Triangle – including Argentina – through its US embassies,” the diplomat denounced on Twitter.
Also from Colombia, Feliciano Valencia, former senator and indigenous leader of the New Granada nation, repudiated how the US Southern Command confirms the validity of the Monroe doctrine as Washington’s policy for Latin America and the Caribbean and assured that the Peruvian crisis and the appointment of Dina Boluarte in that Andean nation by the same Congress that removed President Pedro Castillo, is part of the intervention of the White House in the region.
“The statements by the head of the US Southern Command only confirm that the Monroe Doctrine continues to be applied in Latin America, a colonialist policy. The democracies of the region will continue to intervene for lithium, oil, gold and water. An example is the Peru of Boluarte,” Valencia said on Twitter.
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