My Take | Time has come for South America to end its status as US’ backyard

“The Monroe Doctrine is as relevant today as it was the day it was written.” – US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, 2018

It’s easy for a great power to support the victims of a rival power, while refusing to recognise its own. In fact, it’s often the case that the long-suffering victims are not even acknowledged. Rather, it’s almost always, “Blame the victims”. That pretty much sums up the American attitude towards countries in Latin America over the past century whenever troubles arose down south from the imperial republic; today, for example, migrants at the US southern border.

It’s also the reason that Western pundits today are loudly trumpeting that countries in central Europe and the Baltic are doubling down on their commitment to the Western alliance, especially Nato, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After all, most of them have been subjugated for centuries, first by the Russian then the Soviet empire. That tragic history haunts them still.

In this context, it’s interesting to compare South America as the long-standing sphere of influence of the United States, just as central Europe and the Baltic used to be the sphere of influence of the Soviets, and before them, the Russian empire. The end of the Cold War freed central Europe and the Baltic states. Now we are seeing the end of the US hegemony in the western hemisphere. China’s inroads there merely speed up the process.

It’s no mystery that central Europe, except for Hungary, is going all in with the US, at the expense of whatever trade and economic incentives the Chinese could offer. So far as they are concerned, Beijing is in bed with Moscow. While I am not sure that’s true, it’s how they see it. Beijing does not want to see a restored Russian empire under Vladimir Putin any more than Washington does. Their only difference is that Beijing wants the war to end quickly, with just enough territorial breadcrumbs left for Putin to save face and not be deposed if he were to decisively lose the war.

The situation, however, is reversed in Latin America. The continent has been going over to China, or more accurately, away from its historical overlord, the US. China may offer economic incentives, as many Western pundits have claimed, that Latin American countries find irresistible. But given their long history of suffering and repression under US domination, why should anyone be surprised that they grab at any opportunity to seek stability and prosperity against American imperialism and neoliberalism that have been imposed on them?