In a first post-pandemic, in person tour, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has visited four Ibero-American nations this week, beginning with Brazil on April 17, then Venezuela and Nicaragua the following day and culminating with a visit to Cuba today. Such a high-profile visit in the U.S.’s purported “backyard"—especially the fact that Lavrov was warmly welcomed in Brazil—did not make Washington happy.
Lavrov’s presence in Brasilia, while the head of the U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Laura Richardson was visiting neighboring Argentina to bash China, caused some annoyance in Washington, as did the remarks of Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira who told Lavrov that unilateral sanctions imposed on Russia, bypassing the authority of the UN Security Council, “harmed developing nations.”
The theme of Lavrov’s tour through the four nations was expressed very well by his remark in Caracas to Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto that “we are confident that Latin America will become one of the pillars of this international order” that is now emerging. He emphasized the importance of coordinating with the regional Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and in a kind of “mini summit” in Caracas, met with CELAC’s rotating chair, Ralph Gonsalves, the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as with Bolivia’s Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta, Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and President Nicolas Maduro.
Lavrov stressed to his Venezuelan counterpart that working with such multilateral bodies as CELAC and other “regional processes, will help to preserve the identity of the region and ensure that it has “equal footing in discussions about the future of the world order.” He made the same point in Nicaragua. He also slammed the use of unilateral sanctions, which have victimized all four nations.
