CENTSEC 24 OPENING REMARKS, AS PREPARED
DELIVERED BY GEN. LAURA RICHARDSON, COMMANDER, U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND
APRIL 17, 2024
Buenos Dias, Good Morning! I am thrilled to be here in Guatemala!
From Lago Atitlan to the peak of Tajamulco, Guatemala is a majestic country whose ancient traditions and extraordinary landscapes form the “land of the eternal spring.” It is my honor to be here and to share in Guatemala’s splendor with each of you.
Minister of Defense Henry Saenz, thank you for hosting the 16th annual Central American Security Conference (CENTSEC)! I appreciate your gracious hospitality.
A big welcome to our Ministers, Vice Ministers, Chiefs of Defense, Vice Chiefs of Defense, and Senior Enlisted Leaders in attendance.
Additionally, I’d like to welcome US Ambassador Tobin Bradley and Deputy Commissioner, Customs and Border Patrol, Mr. Pete Flores.
We also have our Observer Delegation with 65 observers from our Allied nations, regional partners, and institutions.
And a very special thank you to our Adjutant Generals from Arkansas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Puerto Rico for being here.
A year ago, we met in Costa Rica where we discussed the numerous challenges this region faces. CENTSEC ’23 focused on the protection of Critical Infrastructure in the Cyber Domain, Climate Change, and Human Rights.
Today, the threats we collectively face have only increased in scope and intensity. Democracy and its values are under attack globally. Here in the Western Hemisphere, Malign State Actors operate with regard neither for domestic nor international law.
They perpetrate corruption, disinformation campaigns, cybercrime, and human rights abuses, that undermine the fabric of democratic societies.
Meanwhile, transnational criminal organizations seek to exploit regional instability, fueling violence and corruption that undermine legitimate government functions.
Their trafficking operations result in earnings of approximately $330 billion annually, while they steal the Western Hemisphere’s fish & wildlife, minerals, and commodities that can feed and fuel the world.
Transnational Criminal Organizations are preying upon the region’s most vulnerable populations, and resulting in extraordinary levels of irregular migration.
TCOs subject the people of this region to extortion, robbery, and sexual violence, and many other dangers. And it’s requiring countries to take extraordinary measures by using both their Police and Military together.
Climate change and environmental degradation continues to be a threat to extreme weather events and natural disasters.
This past year, the El Niño contributed to elevated surface temperatures causing long periods of drought and destroying critical farmland. The effects are especially acute in the Dry Corridor that runs across Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Reduced rainfall directly affected the water levels needed to feed millions of people and the operation of critical infrastructure, such as the Panama Canal. The low water levels in the canal are causing ships to carry less cargo, reducing trade, and costing billions of dollars in revenue.
These transboundary challenges degrade military readiness as they expand requirements, and lessen available resources. Next month Team USA is co-hosting a regional climate symposium in Honduras that will catalyze regional collaboration and response mechanisms leading to climate-resilient outcomes.
This is a Call to Action!
There are so many security challenges that demand our attention, and your presence demonstrates your commitment to democracy and your willingness to roll up your sleeves and develop solutions as a team.
Success requires a whole-of-society and integrated approach that leverages diplomacy, information sharing, military readiness, and economics. It’s what I call, Team Democracy.
Central America is critical to the Western Hemisphere – it is so important!
This region and its people are bonded together by history, economics, and familial ties. But we are also bound together by the unparalleled threat – and how we respond and overcome these severe challenges will define our future.
Team Democracy efforts like CENTAM GUARDIAN, TRADEWINDS, AND RESOLUTE SENTINEL increase our interoperability and build combined capabilities to maintain our agility to respond to any challenges in the operational environment.
Furthermore, regional organizations such as the Coordination Centre for the Prevention of Natural Disaster in Central America (CEPREDENAC) and the Conference of Central American Armies (CFAC) reduce the risk of, prepare for, and respond to disasters - thereby reducing reliance on extra-regional assistance while building the capacity to provide essential services to affected populations.
That is why this week we will be “Leveraging Innovation to Secure Borders Across Domains” as we explore “Integrating a Systematic Cybersecurity Approach” and “Applying Data Analytics to Counter Shared Threats.”
Cyber is an all-encompassing domain that links every facet of society from social media disinformation to essential infrastructure. The fact is, the cyber domain affects everyone including Presidents, Ministers, Government organizations, the private sector, and every citizen. Latin America has suffered 12 percent of global cyberattacks.
As regional security challenges become more systematic and pervasive, we must implement 21st-century tools to prepare, prevent, detect, respond, and recover from these persistent threats.
In the Cyber Domain, Malign State Actors like the People’s Republic of China, Russia, and Iran, alongside cyber-criminal hacktivist groups, operate in the gray zone – below the threshold of armed conflict – to deploy advanced and low-cost tools to influence, undermine, and destabilize societies.
They are a comprehensive threat, stealing data, intellectual property, academic research, and secrets related to agriculture, healthcare, aviation, and finance, among others.
Our adversaries are operating at the cutting edge of technology. Their behavior, and the scale of their criminal conduct, are unprecedented.
This past year, Team Democracy came together to respond to a massive cyberattack upon a Western Hemisphere Country.
This External State Actor-supported attack targeted dozens of government ministries and resulted in tens of millions in losses. By working together, leveraging resources, and conducting multiple engagements, we were able to support recovery efforts and strengthen their cyber resiliency. We must remain committed to exchanging best practices on Cybersecurity while sharing and exposing the nefarious activities of our adversaries.
The information environment has also rapidly changing and expanding across broad mission and geographical areas. The application of data analytics to counter environmental security challenges, transnational criminal organizations, and irregular migratory flow will be critical to this fight.
We are investing in data-centric multi-lateral collaborative enterprises, like Enhanced Domain Awareness (EDA), to enable the Command, its components, and interagency partners to form dynamic communities and products.
EDA creates efficiencies in the decision-making process to design and synchronize operations, allocate resources, and assign tasks.
For these projects, 80 percent of the needs for stakeholders are not just AI but are on the mission intel side – the data wrangling and data science of retrieving data from disparate sources and connecting them.
This, to me, is part of the strategic value of systems like EDA: enabling the curation of meaningful projects as a team with data spanning commercial, publicly available, academic, and government.
Moreover, tools like this help to disprove bombarding disinformation, dissuade destabilizing activities that cause irregular migration, and help reinforce our commitment to the nations of this hemisphere.
The results of our hard work this week will lead to the CENTSEC ’24 Joint Statement. This Joint Statement will help guide and ensure our momentum of continued collaboration and progress for CENTSEC ’25 – so we are not just talking about these challenges but are committed to doing something about them.
We have important work ahead of us today. This is our chance to roll up our sleeves and address the most pressing issues facing our countries. The window to seize the strategic initiative is now. With urgency, we must step forward together, as Team Democracy, to show that Democracies can and do -- deliver for their people.
Thank you for being here and your commitment to ensuring a free, secure, and prosperous Western Hemisphere.