Soviet Power in Latin America: Success or Failure?

Abstract

Soviet policy in Latin America, at least from American perspectives, is deceptively easy to analyze. Moscow’s power appears increasingly to extend to previous North American spheres of influence—or threatens to do so. The 1979 perception of escalated Soviet power in the Carribean and Latin America in turn shaped American foreign policy. Moscow’s objectives in Latin America, as best we can determine from available data, are a product of the recent escalated importance of Third World affairs in Soviet perspective. In pursuing great power interests in Latin America, the Soviet Union is conscious of countries and regions that are strategically important to Moscow’s own interests or to the United States. The Soviet Union, like the United States, has a number of policy instruments that can be orchestrated in pursuit of its objectives. Restoring economic and full diplomatic ties with Cuba, rather than using the promise of ties as leverage for an African retreat, makes sense for the United States.