ÈÍÒÅËÐÎÑ > Vol. 5, No 3. 2015 > The Advance of Radical Populist Doctrine in Latin America

DOUGLAS FARAH
The Advance of Radical Populist Doctrine in Latin America


15 ñåíòÿáðÿ 2015

In July 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Cuba, Nicaragua, Argentina and Brazil. He forgave more than $30 billion in Cuban debt from the Cold War; signed a nuclear energy and gas deals with Argentina and declared the beleaguered administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner a “top strategic ally;” promised his old friend Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua agricultural assistance and other aid; and signed on as a founding member of the BRICS’ new development bank to challenge the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.1 Ten days after Putin’s visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping swept through the region, visiting Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba and dispensing some $70 billion in loans, lines of credit and direct aid.2 It was his second visit to the region in less than two years and the third by a Chinese president in the past three years. In contrast, in eight years President Obama has visited only six Latin American countries – and only one more than once.3 U.S. aid to the region has been shrinking and most of what is available is used to fund increasingly unpopular counter-narcotics efforts. Even the crisis of unaccompanied minors from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador resulted in an acrimonious domestic debate over immigration policy that yielded little additional aid to the region. Many U.S. policy leaders express dismay at the inability of U.S. leaders to produce desired results around the world, from brokering a ceasefire in the Middle East to stemming the advance of radical Islamists in Iraq and Syria, and warn of a decline of U.S influence


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