Los Angeles Times editorial: Russia’s interest in South America should alert the U.S.
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This Los Angeles Times editorial again touches on the issue of Russia building its ties here in Latin America:
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s four-nation jaunt through Latin America, which started at an international summit in Peru on Saturday and finishes in Cuba on Thursday, might be thought of as his badwill tour -- not aimed at Latin America, but a country just north of Mexico.
Medvedev will clasp arms with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez today even as a small flotilla of Russian warships conducts training exercises alongside the Venezuelan navy, the first time since the end of the Cold War that Russian ships have trained in the Caribbean. Chavez, who has built his political career on baiting the United States, will announce new arms and energy deals with Russia, including a scary proposal for the two countries to cooperate on Venezuela’s first nuclear power plant. Then Medvedev will try to invoke the ghost of missile crises past by heading to Havana, where he’ll seek to restore Soviet-era ties that were severely damaged when Moscow stopped propping up the island’s economy.
This report from Chris Kraul earlier this month focused on Dmitry Medvedev’s then-upcoming visit, and John Kiriakou, who served as a CIA counter-terrorism official from 1998 to 2004, wrote in Los Angeles Times Opinion that he thinks Iran is making major diplomatic inroads in Latin America, right under Washington’s nose.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City