Special Report

China’s Rapacious Port Expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean

In recent years, China’s expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean has been a topic of discussion in the world’s major political and economic circles. And the reason is clear: China seeks to become the region’s main trading partner and leader over the rest of the world in the financing, construction, and operation of marine terminals in Latin America and the Caribbean.

A study by U.S. security and defense think tank, Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) indicated that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has investments in close to 40 ports in Latin America and the Caribbean — number  that is added to an even higher one worldwide.

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Academia

Triads, Snakeheads, and Flying Money: The Underworld of Chinese Criminal Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean
Triads, Snakeheads, and Flying Money: The Underworld of Chinese Criminal Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) continue to grapple with some of the highest rates of violence and corruption in the world, particularly due to the corrosive presence of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). Notorious regional TCOs continue to sell drugs worldwide, kill with impunity, bribe local officials, terrorize communities, and build deadly international partnerships with Italian, Russian, and Albanian criminals. But one group has quietly increased its influence throughout this region, even though its customers are half a world away: Chinese criminal networks. Over the past decade, Chinese criminal groups operating in LAC have specialized in four illegal [ … ]

Mexico’s Engagement with China and Choices for Its Future
Mexico’s Engagement with China and Choices for Its Future

Introduction As Mexico looks to national elections in June 2024, the expanding engagement that the country is backing into with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will have profound implications for the country’s future, as well as the United States and the rest of the region. Background Mexico’s relationship with China has always been complicated. Although Chinese migrants formed an important part in Mexico’s national story, the perceived “otherness” of the Chinese community and competition for work led to occasional violence against ethnic Chinese. With the contemporary expansion of the PRC economy, the position of both countries as manufacturing exporters [ … ]

PRC Engagement in The Bahamas
PRC Engagement in The Bahamas

Introduction In his March 2023 annual posture statement to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, head of U.S. Northern Command General Glen VanHerck referred to the substantial commercial and other presence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Bahamas as “efforts to gain a foothold only 50 miles from the U.S. East Coast.” Relatively little has been written in either the U.S. or Latin American and Caribbean media regarding PRC engagement in the Bahamas. Those activities, in both commercial and other domains, have been substantial and growing for more than two decades. Moreover, they are part of broader [ … ]

Chinese Private Security Companies in Latin America
Chinese Private Security Companies in Latin America

This article was originally published on The Diplomat on July 17, 2023. The enormous expansion of global engagement by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its companies over the past two decades has generated a corresponding need to protect Chinese operations and personnel in the dangerous environments where they sometimes operate. Awareness of such needs for protection among the Chinese public was most expressed in the “Wolf Warrior” movies, in which Chinese citizens working abroad are threatened by foreign mercenaries and must be rescued. The need to evacuate Chinese citizens from Libya in 2011 and Yemen in 2015 due [ … ]

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General Javier Eduardo Iturriaga del Campo, commander of the Chilean Army
“One of our mission areas is to contribute to international cooperation and our country’s foreign policy, and within that framework the Army maintains a broad agenda of knowledge and cooperation at the regional and international level with partner nations. The Chilean Armed Forces are currently participating in several peacekeeping missions, specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Colombia, and the Middle East, and in this area, they also participate in exercises such as U.S. Southern Command’s Southern Vanguard.”
General Javier Eduardo Iturriaga del Campo, commander of the Chilean Army
Colonel (ret.) Gladys Pecci, Paraguayan Vice Minister of National Defense
“Only 5.6 percent of the total [Paraguayan] Armed Forces’ personnel are women, and we want to increase this number. The Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces are being very receptive to breaking established structural paradigms, which allow women to fill certain roles, because we believe that democracy is enhanced when there is inclusion of women in the defense field.”
Colonel (ret.) Gladys Pecci, Paraguayan Vice Minister of National Defense
Major General William L. Thigpen, U.S. Army South commanding general
The collaboration and partnership that comes with an exercise like this [Southern Vanguard 22] is extremely important to us. It builds interoperability. It also allows us to understand each other’s capabilities. But most importantly, it builds camaraderie down to the tactical level, as well as readiness for both countries, and partnership.”
Major General William L. Thigpen, U.S. Army South commanding general