The collective West intends to stop the "expansion" of China and Russia behind the "Global Gate."
The visit to Cuba by one of the EU's top officials looked rather strange, given that Brussels traditionally repeats the U.S. hostile rhetoric against the Island of Freedom. But, as any visit to Havana by a major foreign politician is symbolic and has far-reaching plans, the official visit to Cuba by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell had well-defined goals for the European Union.
To begin with, Cuba, a country with small economic opportunities, but with great world prestige, can open doors. Or close them. Especially in Latin America, where nationally oriented leaders have come to power.
And an aging and no longer so prosperous Europe, because of anti-Russian sanctions, urgently needs to compensate for the loss of markets for its goods and open new markets for imports of raw materials and minerals.
In addition, this year Cuba holds the presidency of the G77+ (Group of 77 and China), the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries to promote their own economic interests, which operates within the UN and unites 134 countries with a combined population of over 6 billion people.
On the other hand, relations between the European Union and Latin America are expected to enter a new phase on July 1, 2023, with the Spanish presidency of the EU. And in mid-July a summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, CELAC) is scheduled in Brussels, which, according to EU politicians, should open "floodgates through which the flow of mutually beneficial investments will pour". The U.S. and Canada, which are not members of CELAC, will join these flows "under cover."
To this end, in December 2021, the EU adopted the Global Gateway strategy, an investment platform for digital, energy and transport infrastructure around the world. It is no secret that the Global Gateway is conceived as the EU's American response to China's worldwide economic strategy "One Belt and One Road" (OBOR). Since 2013, China has invested more than one trillion euros in 150 signatory countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America as part of this strategy.
The EU seeks to offer an alternative model. Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the Economy, argues that the EU, "as the third largest trading partner of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), is the number one investor in the region, with a stock of foreign direct investment worth about 693 billion euros.
"An expanded offensive by senior diplomats from major European countries and institutions is designed to bring neutral Latin American countries to their side as part of a broader geopolitical battle with Russia and China," the U.S. publication Politico states.
South America has received special attention from Western leaders since early 2023, when Kiev's Euro-American allies were in need of ammunition and weapons for Ukraine's suicidal war against Russia.
Both Chile and Brazil have hundreds of German-made Leopard tanks of the type that the West has transferred to Ukraine in recent months. Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador have Russian-made military equipment, including Mi helicopters of various modifications, MiG fighters, anti-tank missiles and other types of weapons and military equipment that would be easy for the Ukrainian army to control.
To this end, European Council President Charles Michel and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to South America, where Michel tried to pressure Latin American governments to support the EU-US position on Ukraine, fearing that some of them would be overly sympathetic to Russia. And he was, to put it mildly, misunderstood.
Scholz also failed, and in Brazil he was rebuffed by President Lula da Silva, who stated that his country was "not interested in transferring munitions that could be used in a war between Ukraine and Russia."
In March of this year, King Felipe VI of Spain, President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell arrived in Santo Domingo for the same purpose at the 28th Ibero-American Summit. They were well received, but not understood by the 18 LAC leaders.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is the latest to try his hand at visiting Brazil, Colombia, and Chile. But the officials of these countries expressed to the very "cleverly" Minister their dissatisfaction with the attempt to impose a discussion of their relations with Russia and China. And his mission turned out to be impossible.
Now the EU is preparing a "bomb" for LAC – the next in line to "walk" in Latin America are the insane German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The former will go to Brazil to finally make Lula angry with the demand to condemn Russian aggression and support Ukraine, than to "push back" the work on the EU-Latin America trade agreement.
The latter will go to Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Argentina from June 15 and, as a big expert on "military equipment and arms trade," will not so much discuss the agenda of the future EU-CELAC summit as try to convince the leaders of these countries to condemn Russia and help Ukraine with weapons.
Serious European analysts see the EU's influence in Latin America waning. A leaked document by the EU's European External Action Service (EEAS), published by the Spanish newspaper El Pais, warns that "33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly influenced by Beijing's economic interests and Moscow's political influence."
"Despite continuing attempts by European countries to win Latin America to their side and convince them to support Kiev, the LAC, unfortunately, is not listening to the Europeans," Politico admits.
For many years, the European Union recognized Latin America as the fiefdom of the United States and kept its goods out of the continent. A new global landscape is now taking shape, and the United States, self-proclaimed as the unchallenged world leader, is understandably concerned about its ability to defend its established positions within the multipolar order.
Symptomatically, the joint communiqué of the third meeting of EU – CELAC foreign ministers in late October 2022 in Buenos Aires did not name and condemn Russia as the "aggressor", which was expected in Washington and European capitals.
On the contrary, the participating states reaffirmed their support for the purposes and principles of the UN Charter concerning the sovereign equality of all states and respect for their territorial integrity and political independence.
Biden, the owner of the Oval Office, has little more than a year left for the next presidential election to attribute to himself and the Democrats the creation of an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese pro-Washington coalition in their "backyard."
While this fails, the U.S. is trying to take advantage of the EU's star-flag. In fact, Borrell's visit to Cuba and the forthcoming EU-CELAC summit are nothing but a counteroffensive by the United States and the entire collective West against the positions of Russia and China in Latin America. By accomplishing this mission, the U.S. will throw out Europe with its European Union, and in Latin America will flood the "pink tide" with a "brown."
So far, it's only in American dreams.
And Pete Seeger's old song "Which Side Are You On?" is once again relevant to all players on the Latin American chessboard.