Russia and Latin America

By Leonid Savin on March 7, 2024

In recent months, Russia has significantly intensified contacts with the countries of South and Central America. With some of the states of the region, it is linked by long-standing ties of friendship originating from the Soviet Union era.

But in recent times, after breaking off relations with the collective West and realizing that it is not possible to return to the old format of relations with the European Union (EU), the United States and other countries, Moscow decided to reorient the vectors of its foreign relations and in addition to Asia and Africa, Latin America has also become a priority destination instead of Europe and North America.

In this regard, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on the eve of his participation in the G20 ministerial conference held in Brazil, visited the Republic of Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, two countries that are among the closest to Moscow in Latin America.

The strategic position of these two Caribbean states is very important: in fact, they are in the most vulnerable part of the United States, which generates concern in Washington.

U.S. military experts, in assessing possible military strategies, pointed out that by deploying missiles and strategic aircraft in Cuba and Venezuela, Russia could blockade the Gulf of Mexico, almost completely paralyzing U.S. commercial supplies and the U.S. economy, since more than 60 percent of the country’s supplies pass through that area.

However, this is nothing more than an absolute fantasy of the creators of such narratives in the United States. In reality, Russia does not need to use the territory of these friendly countries and expose them to a retaliatory strike, as it possesses hypersonic weapons that, in the event of direct conflict with the U.S., can be launched from various carriers such as aircraft, ships and submarines.

Although, of course, Russia is interested in strengthening the security of both Cuba and Venezuela, as well as Nicaragua, the three countries that most irritate the United States because of the disobedience and sovereign course of the foreign and domestic policy of each.

In this regard, military-technical cooperation is being actively strengthened, as confirmed by the visits of representatives of the defense sector of these countries to Russia in the last two years. Nicaragua was one of the first Latin American countries to provide Russia with facilities on its territory to place elements of the GLONASS satellite system, which is an alternative to the Western GPS.

At the same time, the Russian side is developing other mechanisms to replace those of the West in the financial and banking sectors, among others. For this purpose, banking alliances have been promoted and since last year, Russian payment cards of the MIR system are operative in Cuba and Venezuela, and in 2024 Russian banks should start operating in Cuba, which will allow a wider use of payments in rubles.

Although previously there was a direct connection between the central banks of the two countries, the introduction of additional banking networks will significantly improve the operation of the various institutions within the Caribbean country. Moreover, such a pilot project could serve as a prototype for expansion to other countries. Taking into account the fact that Cuba has been under U.S. economic sanctions for many decades, such a reorientation of the banking system will give it real possibilities to launch an alternative model with the support of Russia, which other countries could join. We would also add that Russia regularly provides preferential loans to this country for the development of various sectors of the economy.

With Venezuela, the emphasis in bilateral cooperation is also on overcoming U.S. sanctions, but also on agriculture and the production of oil and pharmaceuticals. Interaction in space exploration and nuclear energy is promising. The country’s energy grid could be significantly improved with the emergence of nuclear power plants. In addition, Venezuela can benefit from the experience of Bolivia, where the first scientific multifunctional nuclear center in the continent was created with the assistance of the Rosatom Corporation.

This center was inaugurated in October 2023 in the city of El Alto. Its work will help to improve the production of rural products, pharmaceuticals, lithium industries (Bolivia is one of the leaders in the extraction of this rare earth metal) and will also serve to train personnel in the field of the nuclear industry.

In general, there are some common paradigms in the relations of Latin American countries with Russia, in which the specific characteristics of each state are superimposed, depending on their geopolitical profile.

What is missing at the moment is the presence of the Russian diplomatic corps in several states of the region, especially in the small Caribbean states. Moscow will have to adjust its policy to increase the presence of diplomatic personnel there. Although at the moment, public diplomacy plays an auxiliary role for the Russian state in Latin America.

The case of what happened with Ecuador demonstrates how Russia can respond nimbly to threats to its interests and take appropriate countermeasures, after Quito’s leadership announced that it would transfer Soviet and Russian military equipment to the United States, Russia sent a signal that it would no longer buy bananas from this Latin American country due to the detection of a dangerous parasite there. Exports were suspended.

Bananas account for 25 percent of Ecuador’s total sales and since President Daniel Noboa himself is a businessman in the field of banana production, this presupposed damage to his personal economic interests. After that, the decision to transfer the military equipment to Washington was cancelled.

It is also significant that the new leadership of Argentina, which is openly oriented in favor of the United States, and which Javier Miley supports the Zelensky regime in Ukraine, recently declared that it will not fight against Russia and that all trade and economic ties between Buenos Aires and Moscow will be maintained.

The fact is that Argentina, as well as the Brazilian giant and several other Latin American countries, are heavily dependent on Russian mineral fertilizer supplies. These countries simply have no other options and the rational factor simply outweighs any lobbying efforts by the United States to undermine ties with Russia.

However, in the relationship between Latin American countries and Russia there is a curious and significant factor: something that is common in the character of the inhabitants of Russia and the natives of Latin American countries. The ethnic and cultural characteristics in both cases are quite diverse, and this is something that brings Russia and Latin America, Eurasia and Ibero-America closer together. Here and there, there are indigenous peoples who have preserved their oldest traditions. Both conglomerates of peoples can be attributed to civilizations that include entire clusters of identities, from language to religiosity, interconnected.

Similarly, both Russia and Latin America are striving to build a multipolar and pluricentric world order and have their own integration projects. In Russia it is the Eurasian Economic Union, and in Latin America it is the Mercosur Union and the CELAC bloc, although there are also other local alliances, such as ALBA-TCP (which can perhaps be compared with the allied state of Russia and Belarus; it is significant that Belarus, like Russia, actively cooperates with the countries of the ALBA bloc: Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia).

Moreover, Russia has never carried out any colonial policies or offensive actions against Latin American countries. These were colonies of Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, and also experienced direct military occupation, annexation and neo-colonialism and continue to experience certain inconveniences from the actions of the United States in the region.

BRICS

All of this lays a solid foundation for a long-term strategic partnership between the states of Latin America and the Russian Federation. And furthermore, for participation in multilateral projects such as BRICS+. Although Argentina refused (probably temporarily) to join this international Club and it is also a fact that Venezuela will join soon. Probably, the final decision will be taken at this year’s Summit in Russia.

Respect for the interests of others and the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of states within the framework of cooperation between the countries of Latin America and Russia stands as a good example for other countries.

Source: Network in Defense of Humanity – Cuba, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English