China and the United States' influence in Latin America

By Fiorella Bafundo

Showing the shift in world power and the lack of popularity that the United States has had during the last Bush administration, China “is stepping in Latin America vigorously” through big loans to important countries of the region, such as Brazil and Argentina, where the U.S.A has been for a long time the only “international big market,” and also in states where the American influence is almost null: Venezuela. This increase in trade with China during the last ten years has turned China into “the region’s second largest trading partner after the United States,” making some people fear (specially Americans) of a possible political plan: “This is China playing the long game […] If this ultimately translates into political influence, then that is how the game is played.”
One of the causes of this shift seams to be the inefficiency and lack of money of the Inter-American Development Bank, an international finance institution with base in Washington DC, due to the economic crisis and the huge conditions these kinds of institutions have imposed for loans to the region. Similarly, an Argentinean economist says that this is the result of the “lack of attention that the United States showed to Latin America during the entire Bush administration.” True or not, Obama is planning to meet with some of the leaders of Latin America soon.