Washington’s already-tarnished image is being further damaged in the region, a vice president of policy at the Americas Society has warned
Russian “propaganda” is of exceptional quality in Latin America and the US is struggling to portray itself as “the shining city on the hill,” the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly magazine, Brian Winter, has claimed.
Washington largely has itself to blame for the situation, given its long history of displaying its “worst behaviors” in the region, the journalist added.
Winter made the remarks during a webinar hosted last week by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a leading American think tank.
He accused RT’s news outlets of being “just as pure a propaganda arm as you can get of the Russian government,” but said that he was “continually impressed by the quality of Russian propaganda in Latin America.”
“Those guys are really good. You look at RT en Español – it has one of the biggest social media followings of any media company in the region,” Winter acknowledged, arguing that people who are not even “pro-Russia” still share content and videos from RT.
Winter also serves as vice president of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, the parent organizations of Americas Quarterly. The two influence groups were originally founded back in 1960 by David Rockefeller at the request of President John F. Kennedy to counter Communism in Latin America.
Winter, a former Reuters correspondent who is based in New York, alleged that Moscow has a “whole network of sites that are more subtle and that push very sophisticated and sometimes not particularly obvious narratives that are designed to undermine the United States or promote the views of China and Russia.” However, he failed to offer any examples of such websites.
Winter argued that the US approach to the region has done significant damage to Washington’s image, as well as contributing to mistrust towards American media. “Sometimes the United States does not need any help when it comes to undermining its reputation in the region,” he stated.
“I know that people roll their eyes at the notion of the United States as being kind of the shining city on the hill. And I understand why. And that was always true, in part because of the long history of US intervention in Latin America often showing, you know, some of our worst behaviors,” Winter said.
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