The Decline of the US’ Imperial Influence in Latin America

12/02/09 Stockholm, Sweden – Historically the US is accustomed to having its way in Latin America, but with ongoing global shifts in economic advantage some of its power is fading and at least a portion of it is changing hands.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“While the U.S. remains the dominant player in Latin America, its clout is curtailed by several factors, including Brazil’s rise as a regional power, the influence of a clique of anti-American nations led by oil-rich Venezuela, and the growing muscle of China, which sees Latin American resources as key to its own economic growth.”

One of the challenges the US faces is its increasingly limited ability to offer financial support in exchange for influence in the region. The WSJ goes on to explain who’s stepping in to fill the power vacuum.

“Economic woes have also diminished U.S. influence. China is financing Brazil’s state-owned oil company to the tune of $10 billion. ‘We don’t have $10 billion to give. We have deficits, China has surpluses,’ says Riordan Roett, a Latin America expert at Johns Hopkins University.”

Already China has shown growing clout in Asia and Africa, and now it’s expanding its reach into America’s own “backyard.” Learn more about these developments in the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of rising resistance to US policy in Latin America.

Rocky Vega

Rocky Vega is a regular contributor to The Daily Reckoning. Previously, he was founding publisher of UrbanTurf and RFID Update, which he operated from Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico, and associate publisher of FierceFinance. He specialized in direct marketing at MBI, facilitated MIT Sloan School of Management programs, and has been featured on CBS. Vega graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he was on the board of Let’s Go Publications and directed business programs involving McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and Harvard Business School faculty. He is also enrolled at the Stockholm School of Economics.

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