US influence group alarmed over ‘Russian propaganda’ in Latin America
Russian “propaganda” is of exceptional quality in Latin America and the US is struggling to portray itself as “the shining city on the hill,” Brian Winter, a lobbyist at Americas Society and Council of the Americas has claimed.
Washington largely has itself to blame for the situation, given its long history of displaying its “worst behaviors” in the region, the activist added.
Winter, who is also the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly magazine, made the remarks during a webinar hosted last week by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a leading American think tank.
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 is 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.
The 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.
