Last week I used Substack Live for the first time to interview Parsifal D’Sola. He is a foreign policy analyst specializing in Sino-Latin American relations with a focus on his native Venezuela, and is the founder of the Andrés Bello Foundation—China Latin America Research Center.
Above is a lightly edited recording of the conversation. Today we’re mostly going to be talking about how Latin American countries are dealing with the shock of Trumpism as it pertains to their relations with China. My takeaways:
On China in Latin America
Despite Trump’s desire and military capacity to dominate Latin America, China will continue to invest in the region with unabated enthusiasm in every sector that is open to it. Parsifal commented:
It’s a juggernaut that is coming and we’re just starting to see the presence of Chinese companies. I’m not talking about just solar panels. I’m talking about electrical infrastructure. I’m talking about smart cities. I’m talking about fintech. I’m talking about telecommunications.
The reaction from Latin America to Trump’s Venezuela operation
The response has been rather quiet, with very few countries strongly criticizing the U.S. In fact, some of these countries have security, migration, and drug trafficking concerns that align with the Trump regime’s.
Venezuelans, both those loyal to the Chavista regime and its discontents, are surprisingly positive about the new possibilities open to Venezuela after the U.S. capture of Maduro.
