comment: >
  
  They’re offering to replace Soviet equipment sent with American equipment, yes. It’s in the article.
context: Central and South American countries  have pretty much stayed out of most conflicts. >
  
  Kinda got their hands full with their own >
  
  I wonder who stoked those flames... >
  
  It wasn't the US......flashback to Mexican American war. >
  
  And the entirety of the 20th century >
  
  US been fighting somebody since they existed. >
  
  What is with this article identifying every government as leftist? Bolsanaro had exactly the same position. >
  
  Yea I got some flack for pointing out the reality in another thread:
  Brazil will literally collapse and starve if Russia ever cuts off their fertilizer. Lula, Bolsonaro, and anyone else in power down there is literally powerless to stand up to Russia. 
  Not defending Lula, just pointing out his hands are tied here. >
  
  Yup, and the level of diplomatic support provided by Brazil and many others in UN votes is quite useful on its own: it discredits any narrative that Russia's imperialism has popular global support. >
  
  China has more influence in Central America than Russia. Both Russia and China have more influence in Central America than they would have had we not promoted banana republics, regime changes and other not so neighborly policies. 
  China controls the majority of Warehousing and shipping services in the region and Chinese is taught more than English in Panama. We are to some degree reaping what was sown. >
  
  That must be why I seen Chinese car brands in Ecuador when I was there last year. I found that rather interesting. Also new Suzuki Jimnys which are cool as hell and I wish we had them in Canada. >
  
  Weird that Chile isn't mentioned, the only thing I've heard about aid was some humanitarian donations last year and promises about reconstruction and minesweepers some days ago, no weapons at all. Maybe we don't have enough equipment or old enough equipment to donate. >
  
  Chile also has almost everything Ukraine has been asking for. They have:  
  120+ Leopard 1-V
  200+ Leopard 2A4
  250 Marder 1A3
  500+ M113 and derivatives
  5-7 NASAMS batteries
  500 MOWAG Piranha
  48 M109 Howitzers 
  50+ FV101 Scorpion
  All sorts of NATO compatible munitions
  Etc...  
  Now I don't know how likely Chile is to send some small portion of their arsenal to Ukraine, but they are one of the only countries in the region best suited to supply Ukraine with this level of heavy support. It could also be an opportunity for Chile to dump some of its older stock and secure deals with NATO and allied countries for more modern replacements. Chile has had a fairly good track record of achieving these types of deals, recently recieving 3 ex-RAF E-3 Sentry AWACS for a bargain. There's been rumors of Chile trying to secure a deal for at least 20 ex-RAF Eurofighter Typhoon fighters to replace the F-5 Tigers and older F-16MLUs. Should this go through, those F-16s might need to find a new home. Maybe they could serve as spares or trainers for a new UAF squadron?  
  Humanitarian and reconstruction aid would be great, but a tad risky. Chile's experience with disasters made the country fairly resilient to catastrophes like earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes and Chile does have a lot of experience in rebuilding and achieving high engineering/building standards. We could support Ukraine, but we may not have a lot of buffer room to allocate to supporting Ukraine without leaving the country more vulnerable to a major catastrophe. >
  
  The current Chilean government is more concerned for the promised new constitution than everything else. >
  
  Agreed >
  
  There's no reason for latin america to get involved with the conflicts of other continents. We're kinda busy with our own mess over here >
  
  People are talking like latin america is a disorganized dystopia. Is it really that bad? >
  
  It depends on the country.
  Some latin american countries are wealthier than others. While we do not face issues such as war or much conflict between countries our internal politics generally deal with government corruption, crime, poverty and the effects previous dictatorships have left over the years. It's certainly going to take a while for us to get out of the generational mess previous governments have generated >
  
  Can’t believe the group of nations we constantly oppressed and staged coups in are against our foreign policy du jour >
  
  Best comment in this thread >
  
  This is not our war, we don't need to get involved. Why world's problem are not Europe's problem but Europe's problem are world's problem? >
  
  This. I don’t understand this whole “Ukraine’s fight is our fight” logic. It’s not. 
  I don’t get why the west is going to countries that they’ve exploited for centuries asking them to help them help Ukraine 🤔 to me it’s an extremely bad look. >
  
  But, how long should this memory be held as the inevitable prescription for the future?  The Biden administration is not identical to Nixon's, and the situation in Ukraine is about as stark an example of one very powerful and rich country using every single tool at its disposal to wipe the other off the map as a sovereign state.  It is more than simply propping up a dictator; it is to erase a people and use their land. 
  "The West" is as lazy a descriptor as "global South" or "Eurasia" - it is about a global order where aggressors are held accountable.  The US should be as well - we should have to apologize for supporting Pinochet, death squads, and oppressive governments in Latin/South America and be accountable for our meddling and aggression. >
  
  Europeans and their diaspora ruined Latin America. They should have every right to deny involvement in European internal affairs as they don’t want to put themselves in a quagmire. Why is Latin America being asked to pick a side? You mentioned the world wars, weren’t military alliances the reason why most of Europe got dragged into the First World War? 
  LatAm needs to trade with the entire world, not just the EU and their affiliates, the US, UK, Canada, etc. because of European & their diaspora’s meddling in Latam’s internal affairs. The effects of such meddling are being felt to this day. Sure, an apology would be nice, but look at how many thousands of bright minds were lost because “socialism bad”. You can’t replace that tomorrow. 
  The Biden administration has only now distanced themselves from Guidao (sp) in Venezuela and has refused to lift the Cuban embargo. He may not be Nixon but he’s no saint, either. >
  
  These are not two equal “sides” that embarked on a war together.  But, since the US could morph into Nixon/Reagan 2.0 in 2024, there is no moral authority at work here.  The US has now allowed whatever rule of law it enjoyed to become seriously compromised.  But everyone is in trouble if corruption is allowed to consume the basic rights and quality of life of 90% of people for a gang of criminal tyrants. >
  
  They have much bigger domestic issues to take care of that sending weapons to Ukraine. >
  
  Couldn’t most countries use that excuse? >
  
  Most countries in Europe built up their armies specifically to respond to Russian aggression, so Europe sending weapons makes more sense than LatAm and Asian countries sending weapons (not to mention Africa, which has plenty of active inter-state conflicts). The US can also send stuff fairly easily since its reserve of well-maintained vehicles in storage is far greater than any other country. >
  
  Some Latin American countries have Soviet equipment that we don’t have access to, that Ukraine can use because they still use a lot of Soviet stuff. Parts are becoming difficult to get. >
  
  If they are gone some one have to pay to replace them.