Arms, Iron Ore and Electricity Boost Chinese Influence in Latin America

Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez (C) stands next to China's ambassador to Venezuela, Li Baorong (3rd L), and other Caracas officials on arrival of a 55-ton shipment of humanitarian aid and medical equipment sent from China for the fight against the COVID-19, at the Simon Bolivar Airport, March 28, 2020.

Latin American countries have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, often referred to as the BRI, which funds overseas infrastructure projects.

Chinese state-run companies and banks have been investing in electrical utilities in Latin America, generating income for the firms and creating leverage for Beijing to advance its interests in a region sometimes referred to as “America’s backyard.”

One of the most comprehensive reports on the subject has been written by R. Evan Ellis, research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.

COVID-19 caused economic setbacks in a number of these countries, so they may now be more likely to agree to some Chinese projects that they would have rejected in the past, Ellis says.

The Wall Journal has recently analyzed data from a number of Latin American nations that reveal a staggering COVID-19 death toll.

According to The Journal, the country with the world’s highly daily death rate as of June 21, was landlocked Paraguay, with 19 times as many deaths as the United States per capita.

And with 50 million people, Colombia has recorded about 4,200 deaths from COVID-19 over the past week—about 50 percent more than the whole of Africa.

Fewer than one in 10 people in Latin America have been vaccinated, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Carissa F. Etienne, director of PAHO, has at the same time urged leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations to speed up delivery of a billion vaccines they promised to developing nations by the end of 2023.

China has meanwhile been importing about 75 percent of the world’s traded iron ore and some 60 percent of its copper ore from Latin American countries for years.

Latin American countries have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, often referred to as the BRI, which funds overseas infrastructure projects in nearly 70 countries.

Aerial view of the old salt gate in the southern zone of the Uyuni Salt Flat, where Bolivia plans to produce lithium for China's electromotive industry, July 10, 2019. Credit: AFP

BRI enlists 18 of 31 countries

David Dollar, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based-Brookings Institution, says that the BRI is controversial in the West because of a lack of transparency that makes it difficult to get reliable information on the finances of the initiative as well as on specific projects and their terms.

According to the U.S.-based Atlantic Council, Panama in November 2017 became the first Latin American country to officially endorse the BRI, five months after switching diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China.

In the next two years, 18 of the 33 countries in the region would join the...

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