Secretary Pompeo Touring Ibero-America, To Shore Up Guaidó and Counter the Belt and Road

April 10, 2019 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tomorrow will embark on a four-nation tour of Ibero-America—Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia—to shore up support for the unelected “interim” Venezuelan president Juan Guaidó, while also boasting that the U.S., not China, is the best partner to provide economic development aid to the region.

The purpose of the trip, according to a senior State Department official who briefed reporters yesterday, is to “show our commitment to the Western Hemisphere,” which, “is our partner of choice.” The anonymous official insisted that, unlike China, the United States follows principles of fairness in trade and transparency and, of course, “debt sustainability.”

This would appear to be a pathetic attempt to counter the Belt and Road Initiative, whose growing involvement in the region has Wall Street and the City of London quite worried. The State Department official boasted about the International Development Finance Corporation, which will be officially launched in October for Ibero-America, and reportedly will provide “private sector-focused initiatives” in the amount of $60 billion. What the official neglected to mention, however, is that this very same “new” financing entity has already been announced for Asia and the Middle East, and that the $60 billion figure is for global investment, not for any individual region. He further bragged that the “America Crece” (America Grows) program will “facilitate and catalyze private sector energy and infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean.”