WASHINGTON: A creeping barrage of US sanctions on top Central American officials has made China an attractive partner for governments resisting Washington’s push to tackle corruption and democratic backsliding in the region, officials and analysts say.
The trend was thrust into focus this week when Nicaragua re-established ties with Beijing, severing a longstanding relationship with US ally Taiwan, which relies heavily on diplomatic recognition from small countries.
Other countries in the region are also courting China. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele ratified his country’s new economic cooperation accord with China earlier this year after Washington put close aides of his on a corruption blacklist.
Bukele, who this week accused Washington of demanding “absolute submission or bust”, in May celebrated that China had made US$500 million public investments “without conditions”.
Nicaragua’s decision to embrace China followed a slew of sanctions against aides to President Daniel Ortega following his re-election for a fourth consecutive term in a campaign steeped in the arrests of leading opposition figures.
While Nicaragua’s case is “unique” in Central America due to its increasingly authoritarian bent, the international isolation of Ortega played a role in his switch to China, according to a senior US official, who noted:
“As the sanctions tighten, they look for other avenues and economic partners, there is an element of that.”
US pressure on Central American officials ranges from visa revocations to Treasury sanctions, effectively cutting them off from the global banking system. For El Salvador, Washington is also readying criminal charges against two senior Bukele allies.
Beijing offers respite from US pressure, a strategy that has previously thrown economic lifelines to leaders isolated from the West elsewhere in the region, including Venezuela, said R Evan Ellis, a professor at the US Army War College.
“China, in pursuing its strategic economic interests, is sustaining authoritarian populists in power, leading to a region which is ever less democratic,” said Ellis, an expert on China’s engagement with Latin America.
‘DEBT DIPLOMACY’
Seeking to rebuff Chinese advances in the region, US officials have cast Beijing as an unreliable partner for nations desperate for investment to ratchet up faltering economies.
Pointing to China’s investments across the globe that the United States terms “debt diplomacy”, US officials allege Beijing leaves poorer nations swamped with debts.
Beijing, which refutes such claims, says it deals with allies as an equal partner and does not meddle in their domestic affairs – an enticing prospect for leaders in a region where the United States has historically wielded vast influence.
In private though, Guatemalan business leaders, for example, fret that US pursuit of political elites for graft will drive government officials towards more forgiving allies.
Still, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, who was not invited to a US summit on democracy this week, travelled to Washington anyway and pledged his loyalty to Taiwan.
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