WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered an opening statement during a hearing titled “Advancing American Interests in the Western Hemisphere.” In her remarks, Ranking Member Shaheen said that China and Russia are rapidly expanding their influence in Latin America and taking advantage of the dismantling of U.S. foreign assistance and President Trump’s recently announced 25 percent tariffs. She warned that these actions undermine trust with U.S. allies, disrupt critical programs on counternarcotics efforts and weaken U.S. partnerships, which creates a vacuum for our adversaries to fill. You can watch her remarks here.
The Ranking Member said: “After President Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico and his address to Congress last night, I think the question of how the United States approaches the Western Hemisphere is more important than ever. This region offers incredible opportunity for the United States, as the Chairman has said. It's home to one of our largest trading partners in the world, Mexico. That trading relationship amounted to about $800 billion recently. Latin America also includes some of our closest allies. Colombia became a NATO partner country in 2017, for example. But whether it's the 25 percent tariffs that will affect American businesses and consumers or threats against Panama, these actions undermine trust in the United States and push away our allies when we need them.”
The Ranking Member’s opening remarks, as delivered, are below:
Thank you very much, Chairman Rish. Before I get to my opening statement, I just wanted to make a couple of announcements. One is, I brought up these maps of Latin America, and Senator Kaine will recognize them because we saw them in the Armed Services Committee, and they're actually a couple of years old. But I think they speak to the challenges that we have in Latin America, as you can see, the map—the far map shows the PRC regional presence and activities and you can see by how much of Latin America is colored in a dark crimson, the influence that China has. And so, I would [suggest that] anybody who wants to come up and look at some of the detail, after the hearing, will find it very interesting. The other map is Russia's influence in Latin America. Again, you can see from the orange-y red the extent to which Russia is influencing Latin America. And as I said, while these maps are a couple of years old, I think they speak to the challenge that we have in Latin America—which I'm sure we will hear from our witnesses. So, thank you both for being here.
I also wanted to just announce, I'm sure that most members have seen it but because so much of the last couple of hearings has focused on what's happening with USAID and the programs and services of foreign assistance. The Supreme Court today sided with restoring the funding for those programs. So, if folks have not seen that decision, it's probably worth all of us looking at.
So now, to get to my official remarks. After President Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico and his address to Congress last night, I think the question of how the United States approaches the Western Hemisphere is more important than ever. This region offers incredible opportunity for the United States, as the Chairman has said. It's home to one of our largest trading partners in the world, Mexico. That trading relationship amounted to about $800 billion recently. Latin America also includes some of our closest allies. Colombia became a NATO partner country in 2017, for example. But whether it's the 25 percent tariffs that will affect American businesses and consumers or threats against Panama, these actions undermine trust in the United States and push away our allies when we need them.
Curbing immigration to our southern border and fighting drug cartels, stopping the flow of illegal weapons and fentanyl—all of those are critical issues and we want countries like Mexico and Canada to help us tackle these challenges. But undermining trust in the United States gives our adversaries, like China and Russia, more of an opening across the hemisphere.
Even before the tariff threats, trade with China was surging across Latin America. According to the World Economic Forum, China's trade with Latin American countries could reach more than $700 billion in the next decade. At the same time, Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine has flooded Latin America. According to the University of Oxford, the Spanish language version of the program, Russia Today (RT), is Putin's most successful—more than RT in English, Arabic, German or French.
Not only is Putin trying to undermine democratically elected governments in the region with disinformation, but Russia's spy services have also been expanding their footprint. As former CIA Director Bill Burns explained, "Part of this is a function of the fact that so many Russian intelligence officers have been kicked out of Europe.” In the face of these challenges, it's deeply concerning that the administration has frozen foreign aid and attacked the United States Agency for International Development. As I said, hopefully those issues are going to be worked out. These programs stabilize societies. They gave people in places like Colombia or Haiti incentives to stay home and to not migrate to our borders. They supported women struggling with gender-based violence in places confronting a wave of femicides. As one UN report put it, “At least 11 women were murdered every day for gender related reasons in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The foreign aid freeze has also thrown counternarcotics programs from Guatemala to Mexico into chaos. One program with the United Nations had been scanning for contraband and fentanyl chemicals at Mexican ports and that work has stalled.
Cuts to USAID and the Inter-American Foundation also make it harder for the United States to compete with China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiatives. Deepwater ports, rail lines, solar energy plants—these are the kinds of projects that increase China's influence in the region. So, Dr. Myers, Dr. Ledford, I appreciate you both coming to testify before us today. And I think my basic question to both of you is: how do we keep from giving China and Russia complete free rein in this hemisphere? How does all of what we're doing make America safer, more secure and more prosperous? In the long term, it's in our interests to ensure that we have close relationships and growing ties in the Western Hemisphere. So, I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you both.
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