The Minister of Defense claims that they are (were) drawing up plans for the construction of NATO bases in the country as early as 2020.
Now, sure, Eastern European countries are well-known for being hopelessly corrupt and talking out of their asses so anything their government says is worthless, but Ukraine has consistently postured that they would like to join NATO and NATO has consistently postured that they would like for Ukraine to join NATO.
Plus, the Monroe Doctrine (which motivated US action in Cuba, Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Nicaragua, Grenada, and Panama) literally describes exactly Russia’s motivations… So it doesn’t matter if you or I don’t like it, because geopolitics has no morals and Russia and the US operate on a whole other plane of what’s “right” and what’s “wrong” than the rest of us.
These countries think that they should be in control of the entire world and that the entire world would be a better place if they were in control. They trample over other countries’ right to self-determination and force changes that the population itself doesn’t want in the name of ideals that never realize.
So are you really surprised that Latin American countries don’t want to align themselves with the West?