At a time when the Trump Administration and the U.S. Southern Command are threatening the Caribbean region and Venezuela with military conflict, or even invasion, Southern Command chief Adm. Alvin Holsey joined Gen. Xavier Isaac, head of Argentina’s Joint Chiefs, to host the South American Defense Conference (SOUTHDEC25) in Buenos Aires, Aug. 20-22.
Military leaders from Ibero-America and the Caribbean, as well as Canada, the U.K., and France, participated in three days of discussion focused on aligning the region with U.S. security and geopolitical priorities in which China was depicted as the major threat to the region. In earlier speeches, Holsey has attacked China’s scientific projects and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as particularly dangerous. Suffice it to say that many officers there—from Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and elsewhere—weren’t buying the snake oil the Southern Command was peddling.
Holsey, who took over the Southern Command last November from his predecessor Gen. Laura Richardson, has been a constant presence in the region since then, through tours, organizing joint exercises, and seminars. In his remarks to the conference, he warned that the Chinese Communist Party “continues its methodical incursion in the region, seeking to export its authoritarian model, extract precious resources and set the theater with potential dual-use infrastructure from ports to space.” Holsey finds the magnificent Chinese-built Chancay port in Peru particularly offensive. The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded forcefully to his statements (see separate report).
