Elections in Latin America this year show the region’s populist tendencies have not changed. Giving in to Russian influence, populists seek to repulse American influence all over the continent and embrace U.S. adversaries.
This is bad news for The United States: Latin America as a whole is one of the U.S.’s biggest commercial partners. Having the region succumb to high levels of Russian influence would be a real blow to the U.S. economy — and to Latin America’s as well.
Additionally, the United States is by no means exempt from the authoritarian populist surge we’re seeing in Latin America. Just a few years ago, President Trump rode a similar wave to the White House. The former president’s disrespect for institutions is stark enough to come straight out of the Latin American strongman’s handbook.
To keep the torch of democracy burning and to safeguard the stability of economies across the Americas, the U.S. should be using all the diplomatic measures it can to protect liberty in the region. And it should start soon. There’s quite a lot of work to be done.
In Colombia, leftist Gustavo Petro scored the most votes in the first round of the two-round presidential election. Petro says he doesn’t care about the situation in Ukraine.
The governments of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua are all proud allies of Putin. The Russian government has announced its intentions of building military bases in both Cuba and Venezuela. That’s not a surprise, given the leverage the Russian dictator has over these countries. Venezuela owes billions of dollars to Russia, who holds billions of dollars in assets in Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega has always cozied up to Putin, who sees in the Central American nation a key geopolitical and military ally.
Cuba has been dependent on Russia since the days of the Soviet Union, when the countries shared commerce and a common ideology.
Argentinian president Alberto Fernandez has openly stated that Latin America should welcome Russian influence. This of course comes in a time of trouble for Argentina, where failed economic policies have crippled the economy, and debts to the International Monetary Fund are troublesome.
Then there’s México, which recently established a friendship caucus with Russia — despite having an economy that relies on The United States far more heavily than it does on Russia. Mexico’s foreign ministry has officially condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly known as AMLO, has cozied up to Putin before. Now he criticizes U.S. and EU aid to Ukraine.
Former Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan summarizes well what we’re seeing in Mexico: “Given that Mexico trades in two days with the United States what it trades in a whole year with Russia, ideology seems to be paramount. The traditional left in Mexico — and throughout Latin America in general — tend to support policies that push back against ‘Western imperialism’”.
AMLO’s criticism of the U.S. and his past willingness to buddy up with Putin indicate that it’s not just Mexico’s left that rejects American influence over Latin America, but the general public as well.
The trend is clear: From Colombia, Venezuela, and Cuba, to Nicaragua, Argentina, and Mexico — Putin wants to foster authoritarianism in the U.S.’s back yard.
The U.S. can get ahead of this trend by wielding economic sanctions to put dictators like Ortega and his Nicaraguan cronies in a chokehold. These are people fed by power and influence. Losing access to the world would put significant pressure on them to quit abusing their power. Instead, the Biden administration has decided to give power to dictators like Maduro by striking an oil deal with Venezuela, and allowing private businesses to invest in Cuba.
Populism is a disease. It hijacks the democratic will of the people to corrode liberty and seize power. Central and South America have experienced some ill effects from U.S. foreign policy mistakes. It’s no wonder these democracies are turning to authoritarian leaders spouting pro-Russian demagoguery. The pushback against the United States is nothing but a facade put up by populists who truly mean to push back against democracy, liberty, and institutions.
Gabriel Salazar Sing is a contributor for Young Voices based in Costa Rica.
