News Analysis The Ukraine crisis allows the Chinese regime to increase engagement in Latin America, expand its power, isolate Taiwan, and threaten U.S. dominance in the region. Russia sought to increase ties with Latin America days before the Ukraine invasion, sending delegates to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Moscow and Caracas discussed increasing their “strategic partnership” with Russia, even going so far as stating that they might station military hardware and personnel in Cuba and Venezuela if negotiations with the United States failed. This would have dramatically increased tensions between the United States and its Latin American neighbors, threatening these nations’ trade with the United States and the European Union. The resulting isolation would have made these countries less valuable to China, which could benefit from positioning itself close to the U.S. southern border and southern coast. Earlier this month, Cuba and Nicaragua joined Pakistan and China in abstaining from the United …