Latin America is a region of huge significance to socialists. Viewed by Washington as its back yard, it has often borne the brunt of imperialist aggression, with a long and bitter history of coups, US-backed military dictators and bloody repression in projects like Operation Condor that killed or disappeared tens of thousands in the war to maintain US supremacy across the continent. 

That tradition continues to this day. We see it in the dirty tricks used to stop Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva running for the presidency in Brazil, smoothing the way for the far-right brute Jair Bolsonaro.

We see it in the repeated attempts at violent destabilisation of Venezuela and the promotion of an unelected charlatan, Juan Guaido, as that country’s “president” appointed by Washington.