WASHINGTON – U.S. Southern Command Commander General Laura Richardson endorsed the Americas Act during a fireside chat at the 2024 Aspen Security Forum. The landmark legislation introduced earlier this year by U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) and U.S. Representatives Maria Salazar (R-FL-27) and Adriano Espaillat (D-NY-13) focuses on strengthening economic and national security by creating a permanent trade partnership across the Western Hemisphere while opposing China’s growing threat in America’s backyard.
“In our security strategy we talk about how [the Western] hemisphere is inextricably linked to the security of our homeland,” said General Richardson. “I have met with at least two-thirds of the presidents of my region, but they don’t see what Team USA is bringing to the countries… all they see is the Chinese cranes…and the [Chinese] Belt and Road Initiative projects.”
“How are we getting our U.S. quality investment and talking about our U.S. companies investing in the region?” asked General Richardson. “We got a lot of U.S. companies in the region. I don’t think we’re branding Team USA as we should. It’s got to be better. We got to be bragging about what U.S. quality investment does.”
“There’s some, legislation, bipartisan legislation called the America’s Act… very comprehensive legislation,” continued General Richardson. “I see that very comprehensive and ways of attracting investment into the region. I really believe that economic security and national security are going hand in hand here in this hemisphere, and we have got to work both of them together very, very quickly.”
Last week, the Americas Act was also endorsed by former NSC senior director in the Trump administration Mauricio Claver-Carone.
Background
Cassidy and Bennet, along with Salazar, Espaillat, and former House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) introduced the Americas Act in March 2024. They penned an op-ed in Fox News Digital outlining the legislation.
More than 60 million Americans are of Hispanic descent, helping to make the U.S. the fourth-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Together, the hemisphere grows enough food and produces enough critical minerals to sustain every country in the Americas.
Last year, Cassidy and Bennet spoke to the Council of the Americas about the Americas Act. They highlighted the need for the U.S. to reimagine its neglected Latin America policy and take a more comprehensive approach to the hemisphere. They focused on the plan’s mechanism to expand the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the gold standard for trade agreements, and the new investment corporation that would promote economic development across the hemisphere. The returns generated by the investment corporation would fully pay for the plan.
The discussion draft released last year received support from Latin American leaders and other stakeholders. Learn more about what people are saying. Following the introduction of the Americas Act, news outlets were quick to highlight transformational nature of the legislation for the Western Hemisphere.
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