VOA
U.S. military officials overseeing operations and defense relations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean see an opportunity to persuade some of those countries to give up their Russian-made weapons and systems and send them to Kyiv.
“We are working with the countries that have the Russian equipment to either donate it or switch it out for United States equipment,” General Laura Richardson, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, told a virtual audience Thursday during an appearance at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
Richardson said discussions with six countries, in particular, “are in the works,” but did not elaborate.
“As a matter of protocol, we are not going to discuss details about the defense resources of sovereign nations or speculate about any support to Ukraine they have not already announced,” SOUTHCOM spokesperson Jose Ruiz told VOA by email Friday.
“Insofar as offering our defense partners opportunities to purchase or receive U.S. defense equipment, we offer what we consider to be a better alternative,” he added. “U.S. defense equipment is superior in both its proven reliability and the level of sustainment support it receives during its operational life.”
“That’ll be a very, very heavy lift,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday after a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
“The Ukrainians have the personnel, but they have to be trained,” he said. “And if you look at the weather and terrain, et cetera, you can see that you have a relatively short window of time to accomplish both those key tasks.
“I think it can be done, but I think that it will be a challenge. There’s no question about it,” Milley added.
No worries about the ‘carbon footprint’ of war, eh? Greeda Thunberg (fraud) what say you? Oh and the WEF’rs?
“The best examples of that are Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina,” said Ryan Brobst, a research analyst at the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).
“Specifically, they have a lot of Russian- or Soviet-made helicopters,” he told VOA.
According to data collected by the Swedish-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, at least seven Central and South American countries have bought weapons from Russia since 2000, with Brazil and Peru taking delivery of Russian military equipment as recently as 2016.
4 replies on “US Pushing Central, South American Countries to Give Ukraine Quick Military Boost ”
Hi Penny,
If this is an example of a U.S. policy adaptation toward the “global south” it is destined for failure. Anti-American sentiment is rampant in Central and South America after centuries of economic imperialism and the Monroe Doctrine. As to the “superiority” of gringo equipment, if that were the case no Russian equipment would have been bought in the first place. The situation in Brazil might seem like an American victory but that story is far from over and ultimately in the hands of the local military and police forces. In Brazil, and Latin America generally, these forces have shown they have no compunction against intervention. As to the Caribbean except for Cuba they don’t have anything to give, and I can well imagine the derisive laughter in Havana.
Hi Mark!
“If this is an example of a U.S. policy adaptation toward the “global south” it is destined for failure”
I half wondered if it was?
And I agree it will be a failure.
It almost comes off as a means/method or way of leaving these countries without the ability to defend themselves.
US to global south- give up these weapons for us to ship to Ukraine and we’ll give you more?!
When?
If the US cannot simply provide the weapons necessary to the Ukraine why would anyone /any leader in the global south think the US wouldn’t simply leave these nation states high and dry.
Considering the history?
Hi Penny ,
To follow up on the opinion expressed by both of us to you post above
( Jan21 ) I offer the attached piece that ran In “Global Research” today.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/latin-america-refuses-send-ukraine-weapons-despite-western-pressure/5806597
I’m glad they didn’t send weapons, because this seemed a US ploy to leave Latin America defenseless (as expressed)