Who is Craig Faller, Biden’s envoy to Argentina: he fought the Taliban and rejected a military coup against Maduro

Admiral Craig Faller, Sent from Joseph Biden to Argentina donate three hospitals against COVID-19 and convey the White House’s position on Venezuela, China, Russia and Cuba, He has already arrived in Buenos Aires and is preparing alone for his meeting with Agustín Rossi, who will receive him tomorrow in his office at the Ministry of Defense.

Faller is the head of Southern Command, a Pentagon unit that was designed to defend the interests of the United States in its so-called Backyard. Southern Command is based in Miami, controls U.S. bases in Latin America (including Guantanamo), and provides training, intelligence, and military coordination to all regional armed forces in accordance with State Department recommendations.

This is not the first time that Faller has visited Argentina and this time his tour has a triple diplomatic meaning: to make it explicit that the Democratic administration will not distance itself from the government for its decision to resign from the Lima Group, ratify the White House’s position regarding the situation in Venezuela and the growing influence of China and Russia, and donate three mobile hospitals to deal with COVID-19.

The head of the southern command has the professional training and political experience to convey Biden’s message to Alberto Fernández without any problem. Faller confronted Saddam Hussein when the United Nations ordered economic sanctions against Iraq and participated in Operation Enduring Freedom, commanded by George Bush against Afghanistan after Osama Bin Laden’s attacks on the Twin Towers.

Faller will likely tell Rossi about his experiences in the Middle East, as he knows a lot about Hezbollah, the fundamentalist group which operates in the Triple Frontier and which has as a permanent target the Jewish community of Latin America.

But the admiral who graduated from the prestigious Annapolis Academy has other strategic issues on the agenda for his trip to Buenos Aires. Faller intends to dialogue with the Minister of Defense regarding China, Russia and Venezuela. Three key questions that concern the Pentagon, the State Department and the West Wing of the White House.

Are you worried that Russia might do something in Venezuela like it did in Syria? they asked the head of the southern command.

–With Russia, anything is possible. The national defense strategy highlights competition with Russia and China as areas of interest. We really aligned and thought a lot, planned and provided resources for this. Although these are different cases. China is a rising economic power, and has a legitimate economic and commercial interest around the world. However, they don’t follow the rules. Russia, on the other hand, is a wounded bear who simply attacks, and he couldn’t predict what he was going to do, and he wouldn’t want to. We’ve seen what they’ve done and I think we need to prepare for what might happen in the future, Faller replied.

The admiral’s response sent by Biden must be placed in a strict geopolitical context. Washington is watching closely Vaccine diplomacy executed by Russia and China with respect to Argentina. Without the doses of Sinopharm and Sputnik V, Alberto Fernández would face social chaos in the face of the second wave of COVID-19.

And this bad health situation, that the Pentagon and the State Department qualify as a demonstration of dependence on Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, This would hover over the solo conversation that Faller and Rossi will star in. The admiral was an adviser to Senator Edward Kennedy and has enough political education to convey views that do not involve direct interference in the local affairs of the country.

In addition to fighting the Taliban and helping the victims of the Indonesian tsunami, Faller faced Donald Trump’s hawks who wanted to invade Venezuela and overthrow Nicolás Maduro with an internal military coup. The admiral with unbeatable prestige in Washington and a dozen medals won during his long military career, has always considered that negotiations with Caracas were the best way to put an end to the populist regime.

It may seem paradoxical, but in this geopolitical scenario, Faller and Alberto Fernández coincide. The head of the southern command rejected a landing plan and putsch Palace designed by John Bolton, then Trump’s national security adviser, who intended to carry out a covert operation launched from the border with Colombia to finish off Maduro.

The Argentine president assured in the privacy of Olivos, as Faller interpreted it at the White House, that to invade Venezuela with the support of the Pentagon would be like re-issuing the Vietnam War or the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. And this is where the strategic coincidences end: Alberto Fernández argues that Juan Guaidó is a useless piece in the negotiation for Venezuelan democracy, while the admiral sent by Biden claims the opposite.

What options have you been asked to deal with the situation in Venezuela? –, they consulted Faller when Bolton’s military option had already become public.

–We focus on supporting a political and diplomatic solution, and as you would expect from a combatant commander, we are working to ensure the safety of United States citizens and property in Venezuela.

We heard about the sending of thousands of soldiers to Colombia, everyone has seen the memo from national security adviser John Bolton. Did anyone ask you to come up with this particular option?

–We fully support diplomatic efforts and the regions have never been so unified. More than 40 countries around the world have joined in supporting the legitimate interim government of (Juan) Guaidó and this is one of the main strengths of the ongoing efforts. So whatever we do, it’s going to be supporting our policy here in the United States and making sure we have that regional unity, ”the admiral replied.

Some months, Trump kicked Bolton out of the White House.

And Faller heard the news from Southern Command in Miami.

The admiral meets Rossi tomorrow. They predict an interesting dialogue between Biden’s envoy and one of Cristina Kirchner’s closest ministers and her personal take on China, Russia and Venezuela.

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