A recent leak of U.S. classified intelligence reports appears to confirm what many Latin America and Caribbean watchers have warned about in recent years: Russia and China are trying to gain a foothold amid waning U.S. leadership.
Screenshots of some of those documents obtained by the Miami Herald show that Russian mercenaries were planning to pitch a plan to provide security in Haiti after months of unsuccessful negotiations led by the United States to form a multinational force to help tackle escalating armed gang violence in the Caribbean nation. They also reveal that the Russian government was trying to use Brazil’s offer to mediate in the war the Kremlin launched against Ukraine to its advantage. Also, according to the highly classified documents, China is benefiting from the Russia-Ukraine war in countries like Nicaragua, where Moscow is a key security partner.
The reports on Russia and China’s inroads in the Western Hemisphere come as more nations dump diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in favor of Beijing, and countries like Nicaragua and Venezuela, and to a lesser extent Cuba, are willing to allow their political relationship with Russia to be used to project symbolic threats against the United States.
