The Latin nostalgia for a Soviet ally

Why won’t Latin America help Ukraine repel the Russian invaders? asked Luis Eduardo Gutiérrez. While Western governments are busy shipping weapons to Kyiv, Latin America’s leftist leaders have stayed out of it, refusing to offer even verbal support for the Ukrainian cause. The reason may lie in this region’s residual gratitude for Soviet backing of leftist movements here during the Cold War. Russia is “the symbolic heir of the great power that supported the communists and guerrillas,” while the U.S. is still condemned for having sided with right-wing dictators and their death squads. Keen “to prolong this Soviet influence in the countries of the global south,” Russia has flooded the region with propaganda. Russian outlets RT and Sputnik are both carried on the Venezuelan broadcaster Telesur, reaching millions of viewers across Latin America with messages promoting Russia as an iconoclastic force for a multipolar new world order. So while it’s not fair to say that Latin American leaders full-throatedly support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is true that they have not been able to choose between their “rejection of the United States and their rejection of the use of violence.” Instead, they have “opted for silence.”