Fig Leaf Internationalism

The graphic chosen says it all:

Morales, Castro, and Chavez lionized by Europeans wanting to oppress a populace vicariously through others.

The EU, which is the leading donor of development assistance to Latin America, also hopes to set up a new financial instrument to leverage millions of euros to bank-roll energy infrastructure, environmental projects and combat poverty.

Oddly enough it’s the Europeans are the ones looking for energy. South and Central America have plenty of it. Money too. This is obviously a kind of bribe to stave off the continent’s Leftists penchant for nationalization, making it look rather like a sign of love and concern, as if governments really could love and be concerned.

They refer to themselves as the "biggest doners" to Latin America, but as usual it reveals little more than an obsession with statism. European government aid to governments for the model of program is greater than anyone else's, but as development aid goes, it's a pittance and an insult compared to the aggrandisement they find in it. In this case, they get to aggregate individual European governments into the EU to look big, and aggregate the varied societies in Latin America to make it look braod, as if there was a generic Latin America which is uniformly poor - for the purposes of the sympathies they may appear to have for the European generic image of peasants.

In reality, private doners, largely American improve the lives of others in many part of Latin America to a far greater degree than even Latin American governments do. What this looks like, is a sale and purchase of access to mineral rights, preferably through an absolutist who can inforce that franchise as long as the money keeps flowing. After all, Total had decades of experience operating that way on the African continent.