‘What Is Our Plan?’: Michael McCaul Grills Witnesses On Combatting Challenges In Western Hemisphere

6 months ago

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) questioned witnesses about challenges in the Western Hemisphere and the US’s strategy in the region.

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Transcript

00:00for five minutes of questioning. I have a map that I want to hopefully put up

00:08before technology works here, but this is it. It's not not good news. I mean

00:17since this administration took power, we've lost our adversaries. Brazil,

00:24October 2022. Colombia, May 2022. Chile, December 2021. Honduras, November 2021. If

00:39you look at the map, there aren't many friends down there. Got Ecuador, Paraguay,

00:46Uruguay, and now with the recent election in Argentina. We need moral clarity and

00:53authority in our hemisphere. When you lose that, you lose to your foreign

00:58adversaries, like China particularly. Illegal immigration gets worse, not

01:06better. Fentanyls are coming into this country. It's worse, not better.

01:13China's malign influence gets worse, not better. Cartels and their operations

01:20have gotten worse, not better. And it's all tied together. Our adversaries are

01:27all working against us. We don't choose them, they choose us. We have this debate

01:33on Ukraine, but now we have it in our own backyard, in our hemisphere. More countries

01:42recognize China than Taiwan in our hemisphere, and the Belt and Road

01:47projects keep coming and expanding. I think we need a new doctrine for our

01:54hemisphere, one that protects our interests, combats our enemies, and

01:58promotes shared prosperity between us and our allies. And I'm not saying this

02:04to score political points. I just want to know what is the plan? That's reality.

02:12What is our plan to address these threats in our own backyard? Mr.

02:20Secretary Nichols. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We work with countries across the

02:27political spectrum as long as they respect democracy, the right of voters to

02:34choose their own governments. The characterization that you make on some

02:39of the governments I would disagree with respectfully. In Chile, President

02:44Boric has repeatedly condemned human rights violations and the lack of

02:49democracy in Venezuela, and continues to speak out boldly against the repression

02:55in Nicaragua. Peru, President Bulawarte and her government have been very

03:02supportive of our efforts to bring greater democracy to Venezuela to

03:08address the challenges in Nicaragua. They have raised deep concerns about the

03:15presence of Chinese investments in infrastructure, and I think we'll

03:19probably talk about that. The Panama Canal is a good example. I mean, you know,

03:26Roosevelt created it, and then Jimmy Carter gave it back, and now you have two

03:31Chinese ports on both sides of the Panama Canal. Panama is a strong US ally.

03:38And they are. That's good, right? We look forward to an excellent relationship with

03:42incoming President Jose Raul Molino, and we think he will be an excellent

03:46partner, and he's already stressed in his conversations with our embassy his

03:52commitment to working with us. Mr. Meeks, now having a delegation to Latin

03:58America, and I look forward to working with you before we do that. Ambassador

04:03Robinson, two points. I was in Mexico with Secretary of the Navy. We passed

04:12this year there is new screening that can detect fentanyls and precursors

04:19technology, and I talked to the Secretary of the Navy down in Mexico. They're very

04:23interested in getting this technology deployed, especially to the two ports on

04:29the Pacific side, where all the precursors are coming in from China. Can

04:37you give me an update on that? Thank you for that question. We are working

04:43regularly with our Mexican counterparts, particularly the Navy, at the port of

04:49Manzanillo, and I can't remember the name of the other port. We regularly have

04:54contact with them. We regularly review the type of equipment and training they

05:01need, including K-9s, which have been... And that's great. I brought up K-9s with

05:07them. They said they would need like a, you know, thousands of K-9s to do this.

05:12The technology is now available, and I think we need to get it to them, right?

05:16Well, absolutely. What I would say, though, is, you know, unlike some of our

05:21competitors, we can't direct American companies to go to point X or point Y.

05:29They're going to go where they can make money. We can certainly

05:35expose them to our partners in Mexico and allow them to have conversations

05:42with the government. Well, I talked to the Secretary of the Navy in Mexico, and they're

05:44very interested. I think if this is a matter of cost, they certainly would, I

05:52think, would want to buy it, but I think we can also assist them in that

05:57effort, and I would appreciate your... If you could update me on this, because our

06:02appropriations process is going forward, I think that would be a really wise

06:07investment if we're going to protect our children from the scourge of

06:13fentanyls. Lastly, Ambassador Robinson, you know, I talked to the OMLO, President of

06:19Mexico, and, you know, there's a choke point, and it's between, you know,

06:26Guatemala and Mexico. There's also the deering gap. It would make a lot of sense

06:32to me, and I've been doing this for a long time, this border stuff. I think

06:38Romania and Mexico is working, but your administration did away with that, but,

06:42you know, I think there's interest on Mexico's part. I think Panama has an

06:50interest in the deering gap to close this choke point off, where you're not

06:55talking about 2,000 miles of border. You're talking about a very finite number

07:02of miles that we could secure to stop this illegal immigration that's

07:09happening, and then that sends a message of deterrence that the cartels

07:14understand. I mean, do you have any thoughts on those two ideas? Absolutely,

07:19and I completely agree with you. In fact, we are working very closely on both

07:24sides of the Darien, with Colombia and Panama, both getting them to work

07:28together and allowing us to assist them in monitoring the area, getting

07:36their forces to the area. Our INL airframes are assisting in getting their

07:45officers to the area. We would welcome Mexican support in this effort. I think

07:53you're absolutely right that making sure that we're working with all of our

07:59partners in the region closely, and we are, can go a long way towards

08:04addressing this issue. I look forward to working with you, and I'm going to talk

08:07to, you know, our appropriators, because we talk a lot about border security

08:13around here, but, you know, when you get two obvious checkpoints or choke

08:18points from a geographical standpoint, to me it's just common sense. I would add

08:23Guatemala as well, in that group. Guatemala and Mexico and the Darien

08:28gap. I think those two combined would make a whole lot of sense, and I think

08:33that would be bipartisan, you know, but I'm not going to speak for Mr. Meeks.

‘What Is Our Plan?’: Michael McCaul Grills Witnesses On Combatting Challenges In Western Hemisphere

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