The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

LAURA Richardson is only the second woman to hold 4-star rank in the US Army. And she is the first female commander of the US Southern Command. Southcom, as it’s widely known, moved to the Doral area of Miami-Dade County in 1997, and serves as the military coordinating arm for the American government for everything in the Western Hemisphere south of the US except Mexico and The Bahamas, which are grouped under the Northern Command – Northcom – whose headquarters is in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Gen Richardson appeared at a private event at the prestigious Atlantic Council in Washington earlier this week. Even though her area of command excludes The Bahamas, her comments on a variety of issues are relevant.

She began with a brief discussion of the chaos that has returned to Haiti. Calling the situation there “extremely challenging” for US policymakers, she said current events are “disappointing and very concerning”.

Asked about the possibility of a direct intervention by US troops, she said “not right now”. Indeed, she doesn’t support a unilateral, American-only military solution. Careful and measured in her speech, the general didn’t need to recall for her audience the long, fraught history of US interventions in Haiti.

Richardson said the US State Department was “in regular consultations with CARICOM on Haiti”, and that mustering and deployment of an international UN-sponsored peacekeeping force led by Kenya was “progressing at the speed of relevance”.

On the dangerous situation developing on Venezuela’s eastern border with Guyana, she expressed strong, continuing American support for Guyana, which she described as “a strong democracy and our partner”.

She offered the view that Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro may be sabre-rattling at his neighbour at least partly in order to build up support for his re-election bid in July. She stressed that “there is presently no credible threat of a Venezuelan invasion of Guyana”.

She mentioned that 7.5 million refugees have fled Venezuela during Maduro’s presidency. Many of these have complicated America’s continuing southern border crisis.

Speaking of refugees, Gen Richardson did not rule out use of the US base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba as a location for housing refugees from Haiti who might be intercepted en route to Florida (and The Bahamas).

She sees her unprecedented success in her Army career as an opportunity to promote advancement for women in military careers. “I include events that support women’s professional development in peace and security careers everywhere I visit,” she said. Her command sergeant major at Southcom, the top enlisted position in this sprawling unit, is a woman.

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” Richardson said, noting that women, especially in the military and law enforcement, need real life role models.

The general spent most of the time addressing questions about Chinese influence in Latin America and the Caribbean, noting how pervasive it has become in recent decades. She mentioned several times the cycle of “invitational loans and grants” from China that then turn more burdensome to the recipients as they reveal “predatory” repayment terms.

She mentioned Beijing’s continuing strategic interest in acquiring deep water ports in places like the Panama Canal. The US, she said, “has our eyes wide open” on potential Chinese threats to the canal and its vital shipping lanes. “And don’t forget,” she reminded the audience, “defending the Panama Canal is part of our mission at Southcom.”

The commander cited figures that show China gets 36 percent of its food, 75 percent of its copper and some other precious metals, 31 percent of its fresh water and over 30 percent of its sugar and corn from Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We have seen the Chinese turn their attention successively to Europe, Africa and now the Western Hemisphere,” she said. “22 of the 31 nations in this region have secured Belt and Road loan plans,” she said. “There are always strings attached.

Asked about persistent reports of relative American neglect of the region, Richardson demurred. “US foreign direct investment doubled from 2020 to 2022,” she said. “The Departments of Commerce and Treasury have increased their presence, and together with State and Defense, all are working collaboratively to strengthen regional ties.”

She mentioned a programme being pushed by the Defense Department. Under its terms, the nations in the region who retain significant stocks of Russian-manufactured military equipment have been encouraged to essentially swap them out for newer American alternatives. The ageing Russian materiel would then be passed along to bolster Ukraine’s defensive efforts, since Ukraine still possesses a lot of Russian-made equipment dating from past decades.

“Times of crisis I see as opportunities,” she said.

General Richardson has punched her ticket with commands in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with leadership roles in the renowned 101st airborne division and the 1st cavalry division. But she has also served in key staff jobs in Washington, including as Military Aide to the Vice President at the White House and as the Army’s Legislative Liaison to the US Congress.

Hers has been a carefully crafted career, and Southcom command is unlikely to be her last stop. It all adds to the significance of her careful remarks, which are certain to reflect the views of her political and military leaders in Washington.

THOUGH GOP IS KNOWN FOR DIRTY TRICKS, DEMOCRATS ARE ENGAGING IN MISCHIEF TOO

AT least since the presidency of Richard Nixon 50 years ago, it has generally been accepted that the Republican Party and its operatives are the most frequent practitioners of the fine art of political dirty tricks. Nixon’s inept Watergate burglars and their many successors up through the administration of Donald Trump have reinforced this widely-held view.

Trump’s astounding collection of rogues, villains and buffoons outdid all their predecessors. And now many Americans watch in horror as such notorious renegades as Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller seem set to return to Trump’s inner circle with their peculiar mix of venality, corruption and nativist intolerance.

But all this skullduggery is by no means limited to the GOP. The Democrats have for more than a decade openly manipulated the political process by actively promoting the Republican primary prospects of some of the party’s most outrageous contenders.

This strategy has been employed more frequently in recent years as Republican primary races have tilted ever more to the right. And it has worked.

The most recent example came on Tuesday. In Ohio, Cleveland, car dealer Bernie Moreno, 57, beat state Sen Matt Dolan, an establishment conservative whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who remained stuck in a distant third place for most of the campaign.

Moreno had the endorsement of Donald Trump, who campaigned with him over the weekend in Ohio. Dolan and LaRose were more aligned with the fading Republican “mainstream,” along with popular and effective incumbent governor Mike DeWine.

Polls showed Moreno was the weaker Republican against Brown — so much so that a super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spent more than $3m helping Republicans boost Moreno over more moderate challengers.

In 2022, Democrats spent about $53m promoting far-right Republican candidates who questioned or denied the results of the 2020 election, mostly in blue states. They got good results for their money.

Most of that spending was in Illinois, where the party successfully promoted a Republican candidate for governor, Darren Bailey, who said it was “appalling” that Republicans in the state wanted Trump to concede the 2020 election. The Democrat won.

It happened again during this cycle. Earlier this month, Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat running for Senate in California, spent $10m to promote Steve Garvey, a Republican former baseball star. Garvey came in second in the state’s “jungle” primary, where the two top finishers advance to the general election regardless of their party affiliation.

In the process, Schiff, a January 6 commission stalwart who carefully cultivates a public image of unassailable integrity, nudged two much more formidable black female Democratic rivals out of the race. No serious observer believes neophyte Garvey has any chance in November.

In the Pennsylvania governor’s race in 2022, Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, ran an ad during the Republican primary highlighting the conservative credentials of Doug Mastriano, a zealous right-wing candidate. Mastriano won the primary. Then Shapiro whipped him in a landslide.

We’ll see how Ohio turns out. But a wise bet would favour incumbent Democrat Brown.