With Argentina visit, US military flexes 'soft power' in competition with China
A visit to Argentina and Uruguay by the head of the US Southern Command is a form of "medical diplomacy" that comes at a time of increasing competition with China for influence in the region, according to experts in Washington DC.
On Thursday, Admiral Craig Faller, the Commander of Southern Command - which has responsibility for US military operations and relations in Latin America and the Caribbean - met with Argentina Minister of Defense Agustín Rossi.
On Twitter, Southern Command reported that it donated three military field hospitals to help Argentina treat Covid-19 patients. The donation was funded by Southern Command's Humanitarian Assistance Program.
Additionally, Southern Command noted that it has worked "closely" with Argentina during the pandemic, including donations of protective equipment, medical supplies, monitoring and screening tools.
In an interview with LPO, Benjamin Gedan - a former South America director of the National Security Council at the White House and the director of the Washington DC-based Wilson Center's Argentina Project - said that the US is playing "catch-up on medical diplomacy."
"There was a real sense during the Trump administration that Russia and China had outflanked the United States in Latin America, in providing Covid relief. It was particularly China, but now Moscow too when it comes to vaccine sales," he said.
"There's a clear effort to provide significant assistance in Covid response," he said. "That's particularly meaningful in South America, where countries like Argentina and Uruguay are seeing the highest numbers of daily cases throughout this entire pandemic."
Gedan, who was also formerly responsible for Argentina at the US Department of State, said that there is a perception in Washington that China had made significant diplomatic and economic inroads in the region.
"That includes the last four years, when the United States was largely absent from the region," he added. "There's now a lot of motivation to start re-building relationships, in no small part to compete with the Chinese." Admiral Faller and Rossi also discussed ways to strengthen security partnership between the two countries.
"I wouldn't minimize the importance to the United States of military cooperation in Argentina, on counter-narcotics or counter-terrorism, particularly in the tri-border area," Gedan added. "There's actually quite a bit of energy from the US side."
On the Argentine side, however, Gedan noted that the administration of Alberto Fernández "does not prioritize" the security partnership between the two countries.
"This government doesn't prioritize the military in general. Under the last Argentine government there was an effort to increase the mission of the Armed Forces to include some domestic security tasks," he said. "The current government seeks to clip the wings of the military and constrain its domestic operations, and understandably focuses on civilian security services."
"The one caveat is that there was a big role for the Argentine military in coronavirus response, in distributing food and mobile hospitals in emergency pandemic response," he added. "But in general, it is not focused on building up the armed forces and is uncomfortable with security cooperation with the United States."
The admiral's visit to Argentina came following a visit to Uruguay, where the US donated helicopter parts and discussed various aspects of security cooperation. Over the last 10 years, the US has provided more than $50 million in capacity-building assistance through the Global Peace Operations Initiative.
Additionally, Admiral Faller told local media that he discussed drug trafficking, cyber security, and Chinese influence in the region, particularly as it pertains to 5G.
Adam Isacson, the director of the Defense Oversight program at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), an NGO aimed at promoting human rights, democracy, social and economic justice in the Americas, said that "China is more likely to give significant amount of aid to smaller countries."
"They are likely to give that aid with no strings attached, and not as much reporting requirements, and more of it in the form of cash and big construction projects that we don't really do that much anymore," he said. "United States assistance to the region has, this century, just gone down a couple percent every year."
A significant driver of Chinese involvement in Latin America, he added, is the country's "voracious" appetite for commodities.
"It's a number one customer for Argentina and Brazil, especially with soy, which Argentina makes so much of right now," he said. "That is probably bigger than whatever assistance it is providing."
Isacson added that in his opinion, Argentina and the rest of the Southern Cone, remain low on the list of US security priorities in Latin America.
"The Southern Cone is just not as strategically located for international shipping and things like that," he said.