A new form of The Great Game is afoot in Latin America. The US, China and EU are scrambling to amass political power and natural resources in the region. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the energy transition have all prompted these economic superpowers to secure critical supplies of food, metals and energy. And Latin America has more of these key commodities available for export than anywhere else in the world.
China was the first 21st-century power to recognise the importance of Latin America. It has been on a buying spree in the region since the first commodity supercycle began in the early 2000s. That has been accompanied by a political advance that has seen it persuade several central American countries to switch official diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.
The US, which was guilty of taking its “backyard” for granted, began to pay attention in 2016, when trade tensions with China encouraged the government and US corporations to explore new supply chains in Latin America. The EU belatedly caught up this summer, when it hosted its first summit with the region for eight years. Now it is trying to revive a trade deal – which has been stalled for more than 20 years – with Latin America’s largest trade block, Mercosur.
Since achieving independence
