Salvador, Mexico City For many years good relations between Europe and Latin America were a matter of course. They shared common political values and economic interests. While the USA appeared as an interfering and egotistical neighbor, the South Americans saw Europe as a partner who sought to see eye to eye.
But this panorama has cracked for a long time – and these are now likely to open up at the EU-Latin America summit on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels under Spanish direction.
“Latin America is still interested in working with the EU,” says Orlando Baquero, Managing Director of the Latin America Association in Hamburg, “but the states are increasingly aware that there are other offers.”
Accordingly, the heads of state are now reacting coolly to demands from Europe. Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández complained that Brussels has a “unilateral vision of sustainable development” at the recent summit of the Mercosur countries.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the European Union of seeing South America “only as a supplier of raw materials”. Overall, Brussels’ demands on the Mercosur states of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are “unacceptable”.
Baquero from the Latin America Association confirms: “Europe is becoming increasingly monothematic for Latin America.” Relations are primarily about raw materials because the EU no longer wants to be dependent on supplies from China.
Negotiations on a free trade zone, which would include the Mercosur association and the EU, have been on hold since 2019. After Lula’s election in Brazil, there were hopes of a revival of the negotiations.
Colonial Era Reparations?
At the same time, the EU is making trade more and more complicated, for example through CO2 taxes on imports or requirements for deforestation-free supply chains. “The EU is increasingly blocking trade with Latin America,” says Baquero.
Latin Americans are annoyed that Europe wants to dictate to them how they should shape their environmental policies or their democracies. During the preliminary negotiations for the upcoming summit, diplomats from Latin America are said to have pleaded for demands to be made of the EU as well.
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For example, the EU should make compensation payments for damage caused by colonial exploitation and slavery. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador first demanded an apology from Spain and the Vatican three years ago for the Spanish conquest and subjugation of indigenous peoples.
Demands are also growing in Brazil for Portugal to apologize for its leading role in the transatlantic slave trade. Other South American countries would like to calculate how much European forest area was cut down for industrialization and urbanization against the European guidelines for rainforest protection.
Europe wants to strengthen its alliances in the region, which includes 33 countries and more than 700 million inhabitants. The goal is strategic: Europe is looking for reliable connections to stable countries that can supply energy and food.
Democracy is being reversed
Europe and above all Germany have therefore launched a veritable charm offensive: EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was recently in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tried to strengthen Europe’s position in Cuba.
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At the beginning of the year, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was a guest in Argentina, Chile and Brazil – half a dozen ministers have visited Brazil in particular since the beginning of the year, including Robert Habeck, Cem Özdemir and Annalena Baerbock.
Europeans expect the most stable partnerships with states that are organized democratically and respect human rights. However, both are in danger in more and more Latin American countries, especially in Central America: in addition to the usual suspects, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, authoritarian presidents are also dismantling the separation of powers and opposition in countries with a democratic tradition.
In Guatemala, a pact made up of the business elite, politicians, the military and organized crime is currently calling the results of the elections into question.
In Mexico, left-wing head of state López Obrador is dismantling democracy, weakening institutions and curbing freedom of the press. El Salvador’s head of state, Nayib Bukele, who describes himself as the “coolest dictator in the world”, wants to be elected for a third time, which the constitution prohibits. Obrador and Bukele are the most popular presidents in the region. They would probably win any election hands down.
China is a promising alternative
For a long time now, countries from Mexico to Argentina have not only had the choice between Europe or the USA as partners: China increased its investments in Latin America by a factor of 26 between 2000 and 2020 and is now the most important trading partner for most South American countries. In addition, China has included 21 countries in the region in its expanded Silk Road Initiative, with which the country wants to forge alliances worldwide.
On the Pacific coast of South America – especially in Peru and Chile – Chinese companies are building huge ports to secure trade in raw materials. In the Caribbean, China is investing in new free ports to compete with Panama.
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The oil states in the Middle East are also increasingly appearing as capital investors in South America.
The USA and the EU are still the main investors in the region, as the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (Cepal) has just announced. The United States increased investment by 46 percent year-on-year in 2022, while EU inflows increased by 20 percent.
But the relationship with the Europeans has changed from a Latin American point of view. The states no longer want to supply only soy, sugar cane and meat. They see themselves as independent geopolitical actors. Lula even offered to act as a mediator in the Ukraine war.
Many Latin American countries do not follow the Europeans when it comes to Russia either. Some traditionally have strong ties to Moscow. In the authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, but also in the once stable, democratic Bolivia, this is not questioned.
This became a problem because the Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky, was also invited to the summit. He will now not participate due to vetoes from several Latinos.
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