Latin America, the KGB's chessboard

By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 23/03/2025

Guest columnist.
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Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first post-Soviet president, dismantled the system of state control of markets and privatized public enterprises, allowing free enterprise throughout the country. Almost at the same time, the feared KGB officially shut down its operations, effectively ending the Cold War against the United States.

The fall of the Soviet Union led many in the West to open bottles of champagne and, far too prematurely, celebrate the end of totalitarian threats. However, Yeltsin's pro-market reforms, nor the massive influx of investment in the 1990s, failed to erase the authoritarian impulses of the old nostalgics of the communist era, among them Maximovich Primakov, father of the Primakov Doctrine.

For Primakov, and his subsequent implementation strategist, Valery Gerasimov, it was imperative that Russia expand its activities in Latin America. That distant world, yet close to the United States, became a zone of strategic importance, allowing them to balance, or at least challenge, Washington's hegemony. In addition to the above, the doctrine also proposed alliances with Iran, China, and India to create a multipolar world.

Hugo Chávez's giving away money to destabilize the governments of Sánchez de Lozada in Bolivia and Jamil Mahuad in Ecuador created the perfect scenario to dust off the old alliances between the Latin American left and their Russian comrades. Yes, believe it or not, for the Sao Paulo Forum and Putin, the Cold War wasn't over; it was merely on hold.

The works of Russian military thinkers such as Generals Makhmut Gareev, Vladimir Slipchenko, Sergei Bogdanov, and Valery Gerasimov provide a useful framework for understanding Russia's strategy of expanding, with the help of Hugo Chávez, Lula da Silva, Daniel Ortega, and Fidel Castro, confrontation beyond conventional warfare into a broad spectrum of activities, from disinformation to cyberwarfare, alliances with transnational crime, and economic sabotage. Essentially, it was a souped-up version of something the KGB had already pioneered in the 1960s: a joint authoritarian-criminal venture (JAVC) was born.

While the Russian presence in the region is extensive, for this article I will focus on Nicaragua, as it is the most palpable example of the JBAC mentioned above.

Nicaragua, under the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosa Murillo, has become a key center for Russian expansionist plans, as the country is the base of operations for its satellite navigation system, better known as GLONASS. The country also houses a multimillion-dollar vaccination plant, a police academy, a cyberwarfare and training center in the state-owned telecommunications building, and an Interior Ministry building, which enjoys the diplomatic status of an embassy. In short, Putin and his henchmen have established an entire army in the Central American nation.

Let's be clear: the persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua is being carried out using all the latest Russian spy technology. Walter Sánchez Silva, a journalist with ACIPRENSA, explains:

The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his "co-president" and wife, Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua continues its persecution of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations: it now monitors priests, checks their cell phones, and demands weekly reports on their activities, in addition to restricting their freedom of movement.

For its part, the international Christian organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) published a report this March, confirming what Mosaico CSI presented in January, which describes the dictatorship's "precautionary measures" against religious leaders, such as the obligation to submit weekly reports to the police, share details of their planning, and the prohibition from leaving their municipality without government authorization.

For several Nicaraguan journalists, the investigative work is almost a verdict, because, as Luis Galeano, director of the program Café con voz, explains: "The regime has the ability to see what we write and store on computers and cell phones."

In conclusion, it is true that the KGB no longer exists, but its operators and agents continue to play geopolitical chess in Latin America.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».