According to the United States, Russia is using disinformation to influence Latin America and the Spanish-speaking communities in general, as a political weapon amid the war in Ukraine and three months before the elections of ‘ US midterm.
In a country with more than 62 million Hispanics, in the last three months, members of Congress have written to digital giants, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and instant messaging apps such as Telegram to ask them to prevent Russian media such as RT en Español and Sputnik Mundo from “spreading and exporting lies abroad” that “directly harm national interests.”
While China, another major headache of US President Joe Biden, finances infrastructure and creates financial ties, Russia “must be more creative to accumulate influence and one of the its strategy was to spread false information,” recently declared Democratic Congressman Albio Sires during a congress. hearing about Russian influence in Latin America.
Russia “conducts, as necessary, information warfare activities aimed at increasing polarization and reducing trust in democratic institutions,” said Evan Ellis, a professor and researcher at the College’s Institute for Strategic Studies. of War of the United States Army, during the hearing.
To achieve this, it uses social networks that “complement the activities of its state-run disinformation platforms RT and Sputnik,” he explains.
But it is possible to combat its effects with investment, opined Candace Rondeaux, director of New America’s Future Frontlines, a Washington, D.C. think tank.
“During the Cold War Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were certainly very important in achieving results in Eastern Europe and in Europe,” she said, referring to the government-funded broadcasting organization of the United States. “You don’t see anything comparable to that today” for Latin America and “it’s a lack that should probably be addressed.”
Kimberly Marten, professor in the Department of Political Science at Barnard College, New York University, agrees with the need to fight this strategy.
“What we have to do is respond” and “tell the people through Spanish and Portuguese programs exactly what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his regime have done in terms of corruption and violence,” she said .
Disinformation has reached a “shocking” level in Latin America, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken lamented at the Summit of the Americas in June.
And behind closed doors, the political class is alarmed by the possibility of a repetition of the alleged interference in its elections that Russia has been accused of in recent years.
Especially when there are a little more than three months left before the November elections, when a third of the Senate and the House of Representatives are all up for renewal, right in the middle of the four-year presidential term.
At least 11.6 million Latinos will vote in those elections, predicts the Education Fund of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO). That’s almost one in 10 voters (9.8 percent) will be Latino.
And misinformation can have a devastating effect on these voters, who are coveted by both Democrats and Republicans.
According to an August 23 study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, “when there are gaps in information, they tend to affect many more new voters and newly naturalized citizens,” and “are mostly Latinos.”
During the 2020 presidential election, “there were many, many examples of confused citizens and malicious actors spreading misinformation directly to Latino communities,” the study recalls, although without identifying any country.
It cites as an example the “misleading rumor that Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] was going to patrol” polling places to “intimidate voters”.
In the words of Biden, “There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and profit.”
