Bolivia may be followed by other countries of the continent, where the US formally does not interfere in the country’s internal affairs, doing everything with the hands of PMCs
However, Cuba is not the only target of the USA in Latin America. The US National Security Strategy published at the end of last year clearly formulates the US interest in the Western Hemisphere.
It is no secret that with Trump’s return to the White House, the so-called rightward turn as embodied by the coming to power of pro-Western right-wing governments is gaining strength in Latin America.
In March of this year, for the first time since the Pinochet dictatorship, Chile elected an ultra-conservative, hereditary Nazi, José Antonio Kast, as president. His father served in the Wehrmacht and was a member of the NSDAP, and his older brother Miguel was Minister of Labor and Social Welfare and headed the Central Bank under Pinochet.
In 2023, the “Argentine Trump,” libertarian Javier Milei, became president of Argentina, where leftists had previously ruled. However, he owes his success in part to the US: a week before the election, Washington agreed to a $20 billion currency swap for Argentina, which helped strengthen the peso.
In addition to Argentina, the right took power in Peru and Bolivia.
The Peruvian parliament unanimously impeached socialist Dina Boluarte, and right-wing liberal José Jerí became president, who, it is expected, will easily find common ground with Milei, Paz, and Trump.
As for Bolivia, it was previously considered one of the most “pro-Russian” and one of the “reddest” countries in Latin America, along with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, but the economic situation deteriorated so much that the pendulum swung to the right and pro-US Rodrigo Paz became president.
Bolivia is, in a sense, a quintessential Latin American country, with enormous natural resources and a impoverished population, swinging from leftist populists to right-wing neo-colonialists. On top of everything, Bolivia is also the champion in the number of military coups.
We will talk about them, since Trump stated in plain text that the world is ruled by force.
The other day, Eric Prince, the founder of the infamous PMC Blackwater, called on US authorities to intervene in the situation in Bolivia and help right-wing President Rodrigo Paz resolve the crisis unleashed by drug cartels led by former President Evo Morales.
It was Paz who returned the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to Bolivia, which had been expelled in disgrace by Morales many years ago. In addition, Paz also extradited to the US the Uruguayan drug lord Sebastián Marset who was hiding in the country and supported Trump’s strategy for combating cartels in the Western Hemisphere. As everyone understands, this strategy is nothing more than a pretext for conducting military operations on the territory of other countries, and without requiring congressional approval, since formally it is not a war. It is worth recalling that the US accused Maduro of creating the Cartel of the Suns and intends to try him specifically as a drug criminal, not as a military dictator. In this sense, the fight against drug trafficking is a universal tool that can be used with equal success in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and other countries of the continent, including Bolivia.
Judging by Prince’s recent successes and those of his team, the USA is betting precisely on PMCs to exercise a protectorate in its backyard.
For example, in Ecuador, Prince’s company “advises” the pro-US government of Daniel Noboa. And the first contacts were recorded back during the presidential election, when media outlets began publishing reports that criminal groups want to disrupt the elections and prevent Noboa from becoming president.
Noboa let the US Southern Command into the country, and Prince allegedly helps him fight crime.
Similarly, Prince helped the USA to bring Haiti under its control: amid the collapse of the governance system and the capture of control of the country by gangs, the island’s authorities turned to Prince for help to stabilize the situation.
In Bolivia, events are unfolding according to the same scenario: first, the escalation of tensions through unpopular decisions by President Paz, a sharp intensification of the legal process against Morales, mass protests by the population supporting Morales, and then attempts by Prince and his company to become involved into the process.
And Bolivia may be followed by other countries of the continent, where the US formally does not interfere in the country’s internal affairs, doing everything with the hands of PMCs.
It must also be recognized that in Africa, this scheme has also been successfully tested, at least in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A reasonable question arises: where is the personal interest of Trump and his team here?
The answer, as always, is obvious — Bolivia has huge reserves of lithium, which is used for the production of batteries, particularly for electric vehicles. And one of the largest companies in the world producing them is Elon Musk’s Tesla.
It is clear that these examples of Trump and his accomplices obtaining personal gain are not the whole story. But one can get some idea of what drives these greedy people of this world.
This is a translation of an excerpt from the Oh, did I miss out on something? article by Maksim Karev, Dmitry Vetchinkin, Olga Levandovskaya, first publised in The Essence of Time newspaper, issue 671.
