The Left’s new Latin America: further away from the West and closer to China?

The shift to the left in Latin America is an almost inevitable reality. The issue is not minor. Latin American countries have represented a unique investment opportunity for the great powers for at least a decade.

There are 654 million inhabitants that offer an attractive market and a great platform of natural resources. That is why Europe and the United States followed the Latin American rulers in detail.

Recently, the German newspaper Welt published an article titled: The slide to the left: a growing problem for Europe. According to the media, the Latin American leftist tendency only benefits one country: China.

“The fact that the left may soon govern the five most important economies in Latin America also reflects the great mistrust of Europe and the United States. An evolution that China is cleverly taking advantage of for its purposes”, reflects the author of the article, Tobias Käufer.

He refers to the five Latin American powers Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil. In this last nation, the conservative Jair Bolsonaro still governs, and counting Brazil as part of the new left seems presumptuous.

Still, in a few weeks, the presidential elections will be held, and the polls give a considerable advantage to Lula da Silva. He was already president of the South American country from 2003 to 2010.

The triumphs of the left in Latin America have happened as a domino effect. First, the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador won a historic victory in 2018. Today his popularity ratings are high: a poll by the national newspaper El Financiero gives him 56% citizen approval.

In Argentina, Alberto Fernández became president in 2019. His challenge is enormous: to restructure the country’s debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And in Chile, the former student leader, Gabriel Boric, assumed the Presidency last March, becoming the youngest president in Latin America.

The winds of change were also felt in Colombia. A few weeks ago, Gustavo Petro took office, a social fighter with a great tradition that has come to power with progressive ideas far from his predecessors. This whole political scenario is what worries Europe.

“The first experts already speak of a ‘People’s Republic of Latin America’. And that would also have consequences for Europe and the United States,” the article points out.

The Welt newspaper warns about the deepening closeness between the Latin American region and the Asian giant, which enjoys good trade relations in countries like Chile or Mexico, for example.

“In the global struggle for power-sharing, China enjoys strategic advantages. In Latin America, Beijing does not have to bear the responsibility for an unjust colonial history. The Asian superpower quietly continues to strengthen its trade relations and expand its sphere of influence, while Europe lacks a convincing strategy for the region,” warns Welt.

Although Bolivia was not included in the list of powers in the area, its vast lithium deposits have made it an attractive nation for foreign companies and investors.

However, a series of laws promoted by the former leftist president, Evo Morales, allowed lithium to be nationalized and not left at the expense of exploitation by other countries since this mineral is coveted worldwide because it is used to manufacture rechargeable batteries of virtually any technological device.

“The new power of the left in Latin America is already promoting great ideas, which have one thing in common: to express their new independence from the West,” concludes the German newspaper.

With information from Sputnik