Lavrov's Latin America Tour 'Counterweight' to US Global Hegemony, Says Expert
10:58 22.04.2023 (Updated: 10:48 03.08.2023)
© Photo Russian Foreign Ministry
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's recent visit to Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba produced a number of agreements in various fields, but above all, it is a political consensus on the need to promote the balance of power in Latin America, Carlos Manuel Lopez Alvarado, a global affairs specialist, told Sputnik.
"The four countries [that Lavrov visited], at least in the political sphere, are increasingly seeking to distance themselves from the pressure and hegemony of the United States in the region," Carlos Manuel Lopez Alvarado, a global affairs specialist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told Sputnik.
"Lavrov's visit is part of these [regional] attempts to become a counterweight to US policy and hegemony globally," he stated.
According to the Mexican academic, although there is a certain ideological distance between Brazil and Russia, the truth is that it is not insurmountable, and the return of Lula da Silva to the presidency can narrow this gap.
"With Lula's return to power, he naturally advocates distancing [from the US] again, for autonomy, for Latin American and, of course, for Brazilian sovereignty," he said.
According to the expert, the fact that Russia, first and foremost, visited Brazil testifies to the need to balance the scales in the region and the desire to find common ground with a large number of Latin American countries that want to bet on a multipolar world.
"This requires forces, and one of them is Brazil, which is also a member of the BRICS," he notes.
Alvarado emphasized that Venezuela, despite economic hardships, is also of great importance because of its energy resources, and from an economic point of view, it can play a key role in the process of de-dollarization, which is gaining momentum in various parts of the world.
"If, hypothetically, Venezuela stops supplying energy resources to the United States and sends them to Russia, having achieved fundamental strategic relations, we would be talking about a terrible blow to Washington," the Mexican scholar pointed out.
Regarding Nicaragua, Carlos Manuel Lopez Alvarado noted that this Central American country is an essential one, since China has invested heavily there, which, as the analyst explained, allows Russia to take advantage of this situation, since Beijing is one of Moscow's economic allies.
"[Nicaragua] is a commercial enclave, a political enclave, and a cultural enclave," the expert said.
The country where Lavrov wrapped up his Latin American tour was Cuba. There he met with President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other high-ranking Cuban officials. The focus was on trade issues, in particular, Russian fuel and wheat.
"Unfortunately, for the United States, Cuba, which is a fundamental geopolitical enclave in the Caribbean, has never been associated with the interests of the United States, and now, after this rapprochement with the Russian government, even more so," the academic assured.
