US Media Warns of Increased Russian and Chinese 'Meddling' in Latin America Alex Gonzalez - WSWS.org
go to original April 17, 2017

Russia Defense Report: Challenging the Monroe Doctrine (South Front)

In the midst of growing tensions between the United States and Russia, sections of the US media are provocatively warning that Russia is bolstering its influence in Latin America at the expense of the US. These allegations are part of a broader crusade to beat the drums of war against Russia.

On April 8, the Washington Post published an article titled “The Soviet Union fought the Cold War in Nicaragua. Now Putin’s Russia is back,” alleging that a Russian compound in Managua, Nicaragua is a covert spying facility aimed against the United States.

The article reads, “The Nicaraguan government says it’s simply a tracking site of the Russian version of a GPS satellite system. But is it also an intelligence base intended to surveil the Americans?” Citing anonymous US officials, the article claims the goal of the new facility could be to intercept internet traffic running through the ARCOS 1 fiber-optic cable from Miami to Central America, supposedly in retaliation for the Obama administration’s scale-up of US and NATO troops near Russia’s borders in Eastern Europe.

In a similar article, the Washington, DC insider website The Hill claims Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to interfere in the Mexican elections in support of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the leader and 2018 presidential candidate of the Movement for National Regeneration (Morena). The article openly admits there is no “hard evidence” to justify this allegation, but puts forward conjecture as fact.

The Hill quotes Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Wilson Center Mexico Institute, who stated, “Russia meddles in elections, we know that…Russia’s biggest interest would be on wreaking some havoc on the U.S.-Mexico relationship.” Adapting himself to the neo-McCarthyite campaign being waged in the US, Armando Ríos Peter, a Mexican senator for the Party of the Democratic Revolution, told the publication: “If [Russia] intervened in the United States, there’s every reason to think that Mexico is a target for attack.”

The United States ruling class wrote the book on “meddling” in Latin American affairs. Over the last century, the US has invaded several Latin American countries, orchestrated coups, backed right-wing deaths squads, and supported brutal dictators. Across Latin America, the words “Central Intelligence Agency” evoke memories of the most brutal and depraved crimes.

...The warnings by the corporate press and military think tanks that Russia and China are expanding their influence in the region presages a deepening involvement of US imperialism in the region. The new campaign sends a message: the US will not tolerate any challenges to its self-proclaimed and unlimited right to exploit Latin America.

Read the rest at WSWS.org

Related: Why Rumors of Russian Interference in the West Are Greatly Exaggerated (Newsweek)

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