/ world today news/ The year 2023 was marked by many political events in the countries of Latin America. In recent years, experts in the region have often called the possible retaliation of our leftist forces nothing less than a “pink wave.”
True, it cannot be said that it took place in full – in Ecuador, the team of former president Rafael Correa lost the presidential election. In Argentina, the Peronists yielded to the extravagant financier and American admirer Javier Milli, and the country fell into a new crisis. Street protests rocked major cities and the Argentine peso became one of the worst performing currencies in the world.
However, even Luís Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil or Gustavo Petro in Colombia can hardly be considered classic leftists, even though they relied on a leftist electorate. They can rather be called left-wing populists (although populism is usually blamed on the right).
Although Gabriel Borich in Chile calls for progressive reforms, he criticizes the traditional left, including calling the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua nothing more than “repressive dictatorships.”
Peru’s former president Pedro Castillo, who speculated on social issues and lost power about a year ago after trying to dissolve Congress and impose a curfew, also failed to live up to the hopes of the left (even so-called progressives). Dina Boluarte, who replaced him, was unable to cope with the crisis.
Center-left Bernardo Arevalo won Guatemala’s presidential election this year and will take office on January 14, 2024.
In Paraguay, the right continues to hold power, and Santiago Peña of the Colorado Party won the elections in April 2023. Representatives of the same party took the most seats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
Uruguay has a political dynasty: the current president, Luis Lacaille Pau, is the son of former president (1990-1995) Luis Alberto Lacaille, representing the National Party, whose ideology is a strange mix of conservatism, Christian democracy and social liberalism.
Therefore, it is more correct to talk not about a “pink wave” or a left turn, but about attempts to rethink the current world and regional processes, about the subsequent articulation of one’s own identity against the background of various crises, including ideological ones. And this thrashing will continue.
Next year, 2024, general elections in Latin America will be held in El Salvador, Uruguay and Mexico, as well as presidential elections in Venezuela. The situation in El Salvador is quite interesting as the incumbent President Nayib Bukele could not run for a second term, but with the help of the Supreme Court he found a legal loophole and went on an extended leave to return as a presidential candidate in the elections.
Most important, of course, are the electoral processes in Mexico and Venezuela, where, judging by the available information and current political processes, there will be continuity.
The consequences of such continuity for the northern neighbor can also be noted – caravans of migrants from Central American countries, as well as shipments of fentanyl, cocaine and other drugs to the United States will continue to be sent further, continuing to undermine the economy, social politics and security in the United States.
On the positive side, continuity of government will continue in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia (despite a split in the Movement for Socialism party into supporters of current President Luis Arce and former President Evo Morales) and Venezuela.
It is significant that they are all members of the ALBA alliance, oppose the neo-imperialist hegemony of the USA and actively develop relations with the Russian Federation.
In Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez was approved for a new presidential term at a session of the National Assembly, giving impetus to the development of bilateral Cuban-Russian relations. In 2023, quite important agreements were signed with Cuba.
Directly on the Island of Freedom, with the help of Russia, a metallurgical plant was launched, the railway infrastructure was reconstructed, direct flights were restored and the “Peace” card began to function.
Russia also provided assistance in the supply of petroleum products, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, during the visit of the Cuban delegation in June this year, announced a number of joint projects in the field of military-technical cooperation.
On the Island of Freedom, there is a joint center for humanitarian cooperation, similar to the one in Serbia (from our side, the Ministry of Emergency Situations is involved), there is also a joint observatory.
In Nicaragua, the most active interaction between our countries develops in the fields of medicine, energy, communications, industry, trade and security.
In December, the Nicaraguan president’s special representative for relations with Russia, Laureano Facundo Ortega Murillo, visited Moscow, where new agreements were reached on direct supplies and expanding the scope of trade.
In Bolivia, in 2023, with the participation of Rosatom, a multipurpose center for nuclear research was opened, which will provide the country with the necessary radiopharmaceuticals, as well as contribute to the fields of medicine, agriculture, science and education in this country.
In addition, an agreement was signed with Russia for the production of lithium, an important chemical element for the needs of radio electronics, the space industry and nuclear power.
Cooperation with Venezuela continues in the field of oil and gas extraction, with plans to implement joint projects in the fields of agriculture, medicine and trade
in the near future, the Russian Mir card should work in the Bolivarian Republic. As with Cuba, direct flights have been established between our countries, which are mainly used by tourists from Russia.
By the way, at the beginning of December this year, many Latin American countries remembered the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, according to which the United States began to make claims for unilateral intervention in the affairs of Latin American countries, which in the 19th – 20th th century led to numerous military interventions, blockades (against Cuba that continue to this day), military coups organized by the CIA and the US State Department (or their attempts), as well as all kinds of economic fraud and political impasses.
Although even now Washington is trying to at least somehow control the region. At the official level, there are projects such as Build Back Better, which was originally part of Joe Biden’s campaign to improve US infrastructure, but later became part of foreign policy and was clearly directed against China’s One Belt One Road project. .
In the small Caribbean states, the United States is coming up with various proposals for so-called green energy. At the same time, methods of hard power are also used, including through the Pentagon’s Southern Command and the motivation of the need to fight drug trafficking (at one level propaganda is conducted against certain countries and governments, and at another – the US is trying to officially conclude intergovernmental agreements so that they have a legal basis for presence, data exchange, etc.).
However, trust in the US is less and less even on the part of its traditional partners in the region. Rationality prevails over the abstract formulations and vague promises of the US State Department.
The understanding that Latin America as a whole, as Simón Bolívar dreamed, could become one of the true centers of world politics has already captured the minds not only of intellectuals and the political elite, but also of people in the streets.
Translation: SM
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