“Conflict in Ukraine promotes U.S. imperial action in Latin America” – analysis

By Samuel Cortés and Mariano Yberry

The conflict in Ukraine has allowed the United States to promote its imperial action in Latin America, with Brazil being one of the clearest examples of this scenario, commented a political analyst consulted by Sputnik.

On February 11, Brazilian President Lula da Silva and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, met at the White House as part of the Latin American leader’s tour to normalize relations with his country following the departure of Jair Bolsonaro.

Among the issues addressed during the bilateral meeting, the defense of the Amazon and actions to stop its deforestation stood out, as well as the defense of democracy in the face of the recent coup d’état attempt in Brazil, which recalled the assault on the Capital on January 6, 2021.

In this regard, the researcher of the Latin American Center for Strategic Analysis, Matías Caciabue, stated in an interview for Sputnik that the armed conflict in Ukrainian territory is a convenient scenario for the geopolitical interests of the White House in Latin America because although Biden has not succeeded in getting countries like Brazil to send military support to Kyiv, these emerging nations still need the impulse of the US economy.

“In the face of the enormous economic needs that bolsonarism bequeathed to Brazil, Lula’s move may be good. However, we must not fail to pay attention to US geopolitics in Latin America and to the program that General Laura Richardson, head of the Armed Forces Southern Command, recently announced in an interview”, commented Caciabue.

“The United States needs the resources of its ‘backyard’, and the Amazon is one of those enclaves. That is to say, the White House and the Pentagon have an enormous interest in the natural resources of our region and, far from being a distraction, the European armed conflict in Ukrainian territory is a scenario that tensions and promotes imperial action in Latin America”, adds the academic from the National Defense University of Argentina (UNDEF).

After the Bolsonarist shock, Brazil’s budgetary needs made Lula converge on the need for the Amazon Rainforest to be an asset for which the countries of the first world contribute foreign currency, considered the specialist.

“If the United States does so, undoubtedly, several European countries will converge”, he added.

The specialist from the Latin American Center for Strategic Analysis (CLAE) warns that, in this context where Biden represents “a globalist strategic project” that pays special attention to climate change, Lula da Silva’s approach could be a wise move if he does not forget “to pay attention to the US geopolitics in Latin America”.

Part of Washington’s geopolitical plan for the following years was made evident by the head of the US Southern Command, Laura Richardson.

She declared, at the end of January, that Latin America is important for the North American country due to the enormous amount of natural resources it possesses, mainly lithium, a key element for the future of technology and whose reserves, for the most part (60%), are located in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.

According to the statement issued by the White House, Biden undertook to submit to the US Congress a proposal to create a fund to protect the Amazon, a multilateral financial mechanism managed by Brazil.

US DOMINANCE AT STAKE

The second issue highlighted during the meeting between Lula da Silva and Biden was the defense of democracy after the recent political crisis that took place in Brasilia on January 8, when a mob of pro-Bolsonaro supporters took over the seats of power in the Latin American country, in protest against Lula’s inauguration.

For Matías Caciabue, the issue of the defense of democracy goes beyond the internal conflicts of each country because if for Lula, there is an opportunity to resume a dialogue with the United States (broken during the Bolsonaro administration), for Washington, there is an opportunity to stop the advance of China in the region, especially with a powerful country like Brazil, a member of the BRICS and one of the Latin American countries that have established more trade relations with Beijing in recent years.

“Biden knows this is his main challenge with Brazil and Latin America. The White House will only manage conflicts if its attempt to block China in the region does not come with economic and trade agreements that allow our countries to escape the poverty, inequality, and unemployment that aggravated the post-pandemic scenario”, stated the academic.

This action plan, according to Caciabue, is “one more example of how US foreign policy priorities depend, on more than one occasion, on the very needs and urgencies that inhabit its domestic politics”.

However, he says, if they do not change their strategy, the results for Washington could represent Chinese consolidation in the Latin American region.

“If its actions do not depart from the imperial logic, sooner or later, the governments, or the peoples, will fracture US interests in the region. Its ‘backyard’, which is always the first area of its geopolitics, will become ungovernable”, warned the expert.

With information from Sputnik