Neighbors who help neighbors build communities of maximum resilience in times of crisis A neighborhood benefits from the strength of its inhabitants’ unity: their collective determination and assistance to each other, as well as their unusual commitment to their homes and all to each other.
At USS Southern Command, we work hard every day to be a guilty spouse and trusted neighbor in Latin America and the Caribbean. We help peace, promote respect for democracy and human rights, and combat threats, all in close cooperation with our committed spouses. Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
The neighborhood we share with our regional partners accounts for about 15% of the planet’s surface and 13% of the world’s population. The links we have with our valued neighbors in the region have long been visual, visual and constantly growing. For example, last year, the Hispanic population in the United States recorded 60. 6 million, or about 18% of the US population. A major legacy that unites the United States and Latin America. Businesses between the United States and Latin America are very active, with billions of dollars of direct investment between the two main partners per year. Through our inseparable links, SOUTHCOM’s long-term partnership with the region helps strengthen these links in a meaningful and sustainable way.
In recent weeks, the world has noticed that Latin America and the Caribbean outperded the United States and Canada in terms of deaths recorded by COVID-19, with more than 330,000 lives tragically lost. Worried about our neighbors, in March, SOUTHCOM started without delay. the region’s reaction to the pandemic, as a component of a broader effort by the U. S. government toward our friends and neighbors.
To date, SOUTHCOM has financed assistance to 28 countries, with 343 projects, totaling more than $18 million since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. More assistance has even been provided through the United States Agency for International Development and more is ongoing.
The first phase of SOUTHCOM assistance supported a rapid reaction to the pandemic with more than 80 projects that donated non-public protective devices produced and purchased from lifeguards, health care providers and the body of medical transport workers who are concerned and assisting patients with COVID. -19.
As our neighbors began to reorient their reaction to the pandemic toward long-term mitigation and salvation efforts, SOUTHCOM moved to the time phase of our assistance, investment, donation of 24 cash hospitals to 11 countries, the first 3 of which arrived in Costa Rica on August 18. These cellular hospitals will help communities with high volumes of cases shown of COVID-19, treat inflamed patients as they continue their ongoing efforts to prevent new infections and decrease the presence of the virus.
Here are other examples of our fast with our neighbors in the region:
These assistance projects are smart examples of how neighbors help neighbors when needed; Together, we can triumph over the effects of this pandemic on our region. We value our neighbors not only for their commitment to our not unusual security and prosperity, but also for the principles on which our democracies coexist. the fitness and well-being of our citizens and communities first.
We are honored to have been spouses in and for this region for the many decades leading up to the crisis, and we are proud of our enduring promise to be the neighbor and spouse that we can be, now and long after the crisis. It has decreased. In this relationship, between true friends who are also neighbors, there is one fact that can be trusted to last: We are committed to maintaining the safety and prosperity of our non-unusual neighborhood, standing up to all threats, while painting in combination. to make our region safer, more powerful and more prosperous.
Lieutenant General Mike Plehn is the deputy military commander of U. S. Southern Command. U. S. ,