Russia has been intensifying its influence in Latin America on several fronts. In the IT sector, Russia has been furnishing advanced surveillance systems to several Latin American countries, technology that is critical to the survival of authoritarian regimes.
In a recent report published by the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University (FIU), Douglas Farah, president of IBI Consultants, a consulting firm that specializes in security challenges, reveals that these technologies strengthen the control of autocracies and facilitate the activities of criminal groups, threatening regional security.
Farah’s report also evidences that the transfer of Russian surveillance technologies and other cyber activities, operated by agents linked to state cryptology and surveillance structures, allow the Kremlin access to military, police, and financial information in several countries in the Americas.
“Chaos is another tool of Russia’s strategy. Moscow collaborates with criminal groups to whom it provides sensitive information,” Luis Fleischman, political science and sociology professor at Palm Beach State University, told Diálogo. “Illegal activities driven by these groups increase instability, which Russia can escalate through advanced technology.”
According to the report, the surveillance technology that Moscow provides in Latin America is “among the most sophisticated in the world.” This allows the Kremlin to project itself as a relevant global actor, capable of operating in cyber and defense domains, to protect its geopolitical interests.
Mokorón Hill
According to Nicaraguan investigative site Confidencial, the Nicaraguan Army base on Mokorón Hill, south of Managua, known as Mokorón Base or Unit 502, is in fact a Russian espionage center.
“The Mokorón Base uses a radio direction finding system and SORM-3, a Russian technology that tracks communications and allows surveillance of embassies and ‘traitors’ to the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship,” Confidencialreported in August. “SORM-3 was key to identifying leaders in the 2018 protests, which resulted in the deaths of more than 350 protesters.”
Since 2017, Moscow has been monitoring antennas and surveillance equipment that it installed in several bases in the country. Only Russian service members can operate the equipment, while the Nicaraguan military is limited to securing the areas.
“Regimes like Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Cuba capitalize on [their relationship with] Moscow,” Fleischman said. “These autocracies with limited resources accept any external support whether from Russia, China, or Iran, to stay in power, practically surrendering their countries and making themselves subordinates.”
Digital ambassadors
In 2021, Moscow launched a program of “digital ambassadors” from its consulates, to support Russian IT companies, promote Russian technology to foreign companies, and install their espionage equipment abroad. Currently, these attachés are present in 16 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and Peru to “increase technology exports,” Farah said.
According to Farah, SearchInform, a Russian IT company, has direct access to police and ministry databases in countries such as Argentina and Paraguay, as well as subsidiaries in Mexico and other countries in the region. Its presence suggests considerable access to government cyber infrastructure in each country where it operates.
“This represents a real danger to security,” Fleischman said. “Mexico needs to get to the bottom of the implications of this type of Russian technology, in a context of a serious organized crime problem,” Fleischman said. “In Latin America, the challenges to the rule of law are profound: authoritarianism, lawlessness, and institutional weakness complicate the fight against organized crime, a problem that affects the entire region.”
Alarming case
The espionage and surveillance capabilities offered by Russian technology represent a serious risk in the hands of dictatorships. These tools make it possible to monitor and locate people with unprecedented precision to be able to detain them. “Autocracies manipulate laws to justify these acts of repression,” Fleischman said.
“A worrying case is Venezuela, where teenagers are reportedly being detained, without reports on their whereabouts or state of life, following the July elections,” he added. “This evokes an Orwellian scenario: Today, Russian technology allows despotic states absolute and repressive control, surpassing the scope of the Soviet era and deepening fascism to unprecedented levels.”
Russia’s influence in Latin America is growing alongside an alarming alliance between some authoritarian regimes, Mexican cartels, and Colombian groups, Farah notes in his report. This relationship not only weakens democracy internally, but also connects these regimes with China, North Korea, and Iran, forming a bloc that challenges democracy and peace.
For Fleischman, civil society cannot be passive in the face of the challenges facing the region. “It is time for citizens to take the reins and demand concrete actions from their governments.” Issues of public interest, such as the growing Russian influence, must be the subject of an open and participatory debate. “Democracy is not limited to the act of voting; it requires an active citizenry that monitors power and defends its rights,” he concluded.
