Thread by @JKleinschmidtIR

1/ As suggested by @PopovaProf, I'd like to comment on the recent remarks by the #Brazilian president-elect, @LulaOficial, on the #Russian war of aggression in #Ukraine. Needless to say, many were struck by the ignorance and brutishness of these utterances. A 🧵...

2/ But what lies behind this? Many European/US observers seem dumbfounded by the fact that a leader who is widely (and correctly) believed to have bravely stood against dictatorship in his own country would support a genocidal warmonger such as #Putin on the international stage.

3/ The sources of Lula's (and #LatinAmerica's more widely) attitudes towards the war are many, and differ widely between countries, contexts, and social strata. The probably most often mentioned one is anti-Americanism, stemming from a variety of sources, but often relevant...

4/ ...especially through its equation of U.S. violations of Latin American countries' #sovereignty and #Russian brutality in its neighborhood. While this equation may seem exaggerated in most cases, there was at least one case in which the U.S. could be plausibly accused of...

5/ ...facilitating #genocide. That case is the #Guatemalan civil war, which lasted until 1996, and was enabled by a coup against the government of Jacobo Arbenz carried out with direct U.S. military support in 1954. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guat…

6/ Very often, this atrocity leads to other cases of massive violence also being attributed to the U.S., even if its level of involvement was far lower. With @SebastianHuhnh1, I have written this book chapter (in German) on the effects of #ColdWar... link.springer.com/chapter/10.100…

7/ #covertaction on #GlobalSouth perceptions of the U.S. and its role. In 2011, @TanyaHarmer published this important book on the agency of #LatinAmericans in the 1973 #coup d'état. It's a fascinating, yet depressing, read, and comes to the conclusion... books.google.de/books?id=D3Tdl…

8/ ...that actually, #Brazil (then ruled by military dictatorship) was at least as important an actor as the U.S.! @cgpoggio, in this important book, comes to the overall conclusion that the U.S. were involved in South American affairs to a far lesser...
amazon.com/gp/product/B00…

9/ ...degree than generally assumed in popular, academic and media discourses. There is, of course, much blame to assign to the U.S. However, the discourse of the almighty U.S. controlling all aspects of Latin American politics and economics has taken on a life of its own...

10/ ...and, interestingly, is now common on the political right as well (though much more subdued). For many sectors, the U.S. as the "big other" serves to minimize their own agency in disasters such as the #warondrugs or #neoliberal policies that caused inequality to skyrocket.

11/ Of course, in the contemporary world, this worldview is also responsible for the depiction of #Ukraine as a passive agent of U.S. influence, which is highly compatible with the aims of Russian propaganda. Other factors that facilitate the acceptance of Russian narratives...

12/ ...are the high degree of competence that went into the design of #RT programs in Latin America. Instead of making them right-wing extremist hate speech hot spots as in the German-language version, the Latin American version of RT has actual, critical journalists...

13/ ...reporting actual problems, many of which are not discussed in often highly corporatized LatAm media. #Propaganda is only inserted (mostly) with regards to #European affairs and Russia itself, and therefore becomes plausible, as the rest of the content is actually "honest".

14/ Russia therefore acquired the mantle of a counter-hegemonic actor, which it enhanced through very visible stunts such as the trip of Tu-160 bombers to #Caracas. The vacuity of these spectacles was not easily noticed or criticized in a region which was ready to believe in...

15/ ...narratives of U.S. malfeasance, as well as in the notion of extrahemispheric actors such as #China or #Russia as possible alternatives. I comment on these and other narratives in this recent review article in the journal "Iberoamericana": journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iber…

16/ So, is Latin America a lost cause for those seeking to resist Russian aggression, both in real life as well as in the infosphere? I would argue that there is some hope in new progressive leaders such as @gabrielboric or @FranciaMarquezM. Far from the narratives of the past...

17/ this new, progressive left is looking for a fresh start for bottom-up politics, emphasizing individual agency in a way not entirely dissimilar from the #neoidealism discussed by @bctallis here: rusi.org/explore-our-re…. It is here that one might look for movement regarding...

18/ ...the issue of #Ukraine, and emphasizing the profoundly colonial and imperialist nature of contemporary Russian politics should be at the center of the discussion: csce.gov/international-…. In this context, it is encouraging that @gabrielboric has already, and repeatedly, ...

19/ ...strongly condemned Russia's aggression, and called for solidarity. Such voices must be amplified, while pointing out to those sympathetic to Russian narratives the inevitable association with genocide and imperialism that they thus acquire. aa.com.tr/en/world/chile…

20/ This will be more effective when done in the spirit of understanding, and wanting to atone for, past atrocities committed by Western or Western-supported actors during the Cold War and the "war on drugs", and in general solidarity with struggles for democracy, peace, and...

21/ ...self-determination in Latin America. Assuming that a Latin American skeptical of U.S. claims vis-a-vis Russia is a tankie or a vatnik is counterproductive - even though, inevitably, there will be hopeless cases which can be safely ignored. Finally, the greatness of...

...those Latin Americans who are fighting as volunteers for the freedom of Ukraine in the @Int_Legion_UA must be highlighted, and celebrated. Here is an opportunity to do much more.
🇺🇦Слава Україні! Слава захисникам України!🇺🇦
mil.in.ua/en/news/armed-…