Argentine President Alberto Fernández became the latest Latin American leader to publicly oppose sending weapons to Ukraine, which has been fighting a Russian invasion for almost a year.
During a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is visiting several Latin American countries this week, Fernández clarified that Argentina “is not thinking of sending weapons” to the conflict zone, the official Argentine news agency reported on January 29, telam.
A few days earlier, his peers in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil had made similar claims.
The presidential announcements were in response to the head of the Southern Command of the United States Army, General Laura Richardson, who had revealed a few days earlier that Washington had asked six Latin American countries to donate their military equipment purchased from Russia to Ukraine.
Why is the US particularly interested in weapons of Russian origin?
Because it is the one most known to Ukrainian soldiers, who soon, when the winter passes, could face a new Russian offensive, which would give them little time to train with the most modern weapons provided by the partners of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (NATO).
“Russia has allies in the governments of]Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, but six other countries have Russian military equipment. The US is trying to get those six countries to donate Russian military equipment to Ukraine and replace it with US weapons,” the military said during an event of the American think tank Atlantic Council (Atlantic Council), in mid-January.
The six countries in question are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.
From absolute rejection to silence
Colombian President Gustavo Petro was the most forceful in his response to Richardson.
Speaking from the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), in Buenos Aires, on January 25, Petro acknowledged that “Colombia, in the years that have passed -not in my government- bought Russian war material, helicopters , etc., for their own purposes within the country”.
“That material is there, it has maintenance problems because assistance is now impossible to fix, to change parts,” he explained.
As for Richardson’s request, he made his opposition clear.
“I told him that our constitution has peace as an order in the international arena, and even if that was left as scrap metal in Colombia, we did not hand over Russian weapons so that they could take that to Ukraine to continue a war,” he sentenced.
Just as harsh was the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who referred to the issue the same day, although from his country, since he did not attend the Celac summit for having “commitments in the country.”
Far from accepting the request to send weapons to Ukraine, AMLO criticized Germany’s decision to send Leopard-2 war tanks to that country in conflict.
“The power of the media is used by the oligarchies in the world to subdue governments. For example, Germany did not want to get too involved in the war in Russia and Ukraine and against the population of Germany or the majority of Germans, the government decides to send more weapons to Ukraine due to pressure from the German media,” he denounced during his morning conference at the National Palace.
Although he did not make public comments on the matter, the new Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also reportedly refused to send weapons to Ukraine.
This was stated on January 27 by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper in a report that pointed out that Lula “rejected a request from the German government for Brazil to supply ammunition for the tanks that will be delivered by Berlin to Ukraine.”
According to Folha, Lula refused to send the ammunition for the Leopard tanks to Ukraine “arguing that it was not worth provoking the Russians.”
Neither Peru nor Ecuador have officially referred to the issue and, so far, no Latin American country has sent weapons to support Ukraine.
Tacit support for Russia?
Can this reluctance be interpreted as a wink from Latin America to Russia?
Well, Vladimir Putin’s government clearly thinks so.
In recent days, Russian media in Spanish such as Sputnik and RT highlighted the rejection of the various Latin American governments to the requests of Washington and Berlin.
“The arms race in Ukraine does not have the support of South America,” the former summed up in one of his titles on January 30.
However, the very leaders who ruled out sending arms have condemned the Russian invasion, and have not supported Moscow in international forums such as the United Nations (UN).
However, when it comes to taking sides in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, most Latin American countries – except Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, which openly support the Kremlin – have declared themselves “neutral”.
Why?
Adam Isacson, director of defense supervision at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), told BBC Mundo that the region has a long history of “non-alignment” in great power conflicts.
“I don’t think it’s an act of solidarity with Vladimir Putin, but rather a desire to distance himself from the conflict and not be seen as NATO’s little brother,” he said.
Isacson does not believe that the rejection of the request to send arms affects relations between the region and the US or Europe.
“In any case, it seems more likely to me that Washington is unhappy with General Richardson for speaking publicly about that request. If it was really something they wanted, they would have negotiated it privately,” he says.
As for Scholz’s tour of Latin America, the WOLA expert believes that the main objective in relation to the war was not to get more weapons, but to get votes against Russia at the UN.
“The amount of Russian or Soviet weapons that Latin America could contribute would be small, old and damaged,” he points out.
He even considers it unlikely that the countries with the most Russian weapons – the pro-Moscow ones such as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua – will send weapons to support the invasion.
“If Russia asked them for weapons it would be a great admission of weakness,” he analyzes.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-64506590, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-02-03 12:40:06
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