Chinese-funded megaprojects are damaging the environment in Latin America, a region also plagued by organized crime and drug trafficking.

This was stated yesterday by Laura Richardson, head of the US Southern Command, BTA and France Press reported.

"Players like the People's Republic of China are also causing damage in our region," she said, according to an official translation, at a South American defense conference in Quito.

Independent studies by Latin American organizations have found that many Chinese-funded megaprojects are causing river erosion, water pollution, destruction of fertile soils and destabilization of vulnerable ecosystems, she added.

The US has seriously pissed off China, here's why

Richardson gave the example of Chinese fishing vessels that regularly sail off the Galápagos' exclusive economic zone, threatening their fragile ecosystem, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

She also accused Chinese companies of building unfit dams for thermal power plants in Ecuador and mining that country's oil and minerals.

According to Laura Richardson, China-linked organizations "attempt to manipulate nations through disinformation campaigns and malicious cyber activity, and continue to support authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua."

The South American Defense Conference "Southdeck 2022" in the capital of Ecuador ends today;

it is attended by representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay.

Ecuador is at war with drug traffickers, who are contesting power on the streets and in prisons, unleashing a wave of crime.

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