2023-06-27 19:58:45
In most of Latin America, the reports that a group of mercenaries would head in war tanks towards Moscow only seem to have generated surprise and confusion, but not stupor.
“In Latin America there was a lot of speculation for two reasons: firstly, because, in general terms, the position of the States, with the exception of Cuba, Venezuela y Nicaragua, has been that of neutrality. And second: there is a lot of expectation, but very little reliable information. Instead, a lot of false or imprecise news circulates,” Mauricio Jaramillo, a professor of Political Science at the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, told DW.
“The problem with the media in Latin America it is that they have a very weak international line”, says Jaramillo, adding that “many at the time of the crisis publish a lot of news prolifically, and once stopped, they stop reporting”.
The crises and problems of each country dominate the headlines, and the public is often left without monitoring and the background of the events, Jaramillo notes.
Latin America demands that Europe respect its neutrality
As for the war in Ukraine, Professor Jaramillo criticizes that some media in Latin America completely ignore the principle of neutrality that has governed the region for decades. Some seem to have forgotten the lesson of the Cold War in which Latin American countries were treated as “chips” in someone else’s geopolitical game. This is the reason why Gustavo Petro would have refused to deliver war material to the United States destined for Ukraine “A reaction that was respected by the Joe Biden government and that did not damage relations at all,” adds Dr. Mauricio Jaramillo.
On the other hand, the regimes in Caracas, Havana and Managua They were the only ones to come out to support Putin, On twitter. Yvan Gil, Foreign Minister of Venezuela, released a statement rejecting “the armed insurrection, through terrorist methods.” Miguel Díaz-Canel, for his part, expressed his conviction that in Russia “the constitutional order will prevail.” And from Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Carrillo, expressed their solidarity “in the face of the challenge to the wisdom and strengths of Russia.”
Venezuela and Russia against the invasion of the “Empire” that never came
Caracas was the first to rush to back Moscow. Since Venezuela is a country with Russian weapons, how much does Caracas depend on Russia today? “Chávez and Maduro changed the strategic pattern of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, whose fundamental mission was the defense of national sovereignty and territory. This change in the strategic approach led to a possible confrontation with the ‘Empire’, that is, the United States , and to defend themselves against that eventual military incursion that would be carried out through Colombia”, explains Carlos Blanco, former president of the Presidential Commission for the Reform of the State of Venezuela, to DW.
Venezuela is considered the largest buyer of Russian weapons in Latin America. Russia has delivered more than 100,000 Kalashnikov AK-103s to the country, as well as tanks, fighter jets, military helicopters and air defense systems. The financial scope of military-technical cooperation was already estimated in 2019 at 11 billion US dollars. Russia has granted loans for this purpose, the German newspaper reported at the time business week.
Caracas also signed, on March 30, 2021, twelve agreements on financial, energy, commercial, military, food and health matters during a visit to Caracas by the Russian Vice Prime Minister, Yuri Borísov. And according to documentation obtained by the NIUS newspaper, the accounts of both the Venezuelan Executive and the PDVSA, would be in the Russian bank Evrofinance Mosnarbank.
“What is happening in Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine and the processes of citizen and military discontent, is evident,” says Professor Blanco, also a consultant to the European Union, for whom, in his opinion, “these waves The unrest and instability in Russia are worrisome for a regime like Maduro’s, which is basically sustained by these international alliances.” But what used to apply to the United States applies today to Russia, says Blanco: “Any Russian sneeze can cause a severe cold in the Venezuelan government.”
Lastly, and as for the rest of Latin America, Mauricio Jaramillo, PhD in Political Science from the University of Toulouse, insists that “by not joining here NATO Latin American countries cannot be classified as pro-Russian”.
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