New leaked documents revealing that the US had spied on Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras, have caused an uproar in Brazil. The revelation came just days after it became known that the US government had spied on private communications of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as well as on communications of some other Latin American leaders. Sources say that Ms. Rousseff is considering canceling a state visit to the United States. It seems that, being preoccupied with its military preparations regarding Syria, the US is on the brink of losing ground on a continent it used to consider its “backyard” for decades.

On too many occasions, President Barack Obama and other topmost US officials have repeatedly said that that data-gathering by US intelligence agencies is focused on stopping terrorist threats and fighting transnational crime. Back in August, a NSA spokesman directly stated that the US Department of Defense “does not engage in economic espionage in any domain, including cyber.”

The new documents cited on “Fantastico” program on the Brazilian Globo TV network on Sunday night reveal that the statements are far from being true. The papers provided by a Rio-based journalist, who had collaborated with Edward Snowden show that the US had spied on the state-run Petrobras oil producer, among other companies.

About a week earlier, the same “Fantastico” program revealed that the NSA had been monitoring private telephone communications of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, as well as those of her Mexican counterpart Enrique Peña Nieto.

As reported by Brazilian media, Ms. Roussef was “indignant” and sought explanations from Barack Obama on the sidelines of last week’s G20 summit in St. Petersburg. More so, the NBC reports that President Rousseff is considering canceling a state visit to the United States.

“From our point of view, this is an inadmissible and unacceptable violation of Brazilian sovereignty,” the NBC is quoting Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, who described the spying as “incompatible” given the “strategic partnership between the two countries.”

Similar indignation has been expressed by Mexican Foreign Ministry.

The fact that the US intelligence agencies are spying on others is an open secret even without any revelations. For example, they are collecting intelligence data on Venezuela – but that is quite understandable, given the nature of the relationship, permanently balancing on the brink of open enmity.

But according to Brazilian newspaper “O Globo”, along with the leading Latin American economy Brazil and closest neighbor Mexico, the spying program encompasses even the US’ closest ally in the continent Colombia.

What is probably more important, is the tendency of the latest at least 15 years, demonstrating that the US is no longer able to cope with all challenges it is facing around the globe. For decades – at least for all the second half of the 20th century, Washington was used to regard Latin America as its “backyard” where no one can challenge its supremacy.

When George W. Bush embarked on his “Middle East adventure”, he was most probably acting upon this presumption. But things turned in an unexpected direction.

While the US was forcefully demonstrating its “hard power” in the Middle East, China started its strategy of “soft power” penetration in other areas, including Latin America. And today China has turned into No 1 economic partner of several countries of the continent.

Barack Obama did try to regain some ground – and even the administration’s “pivot to Asia” included the so called “Trans-Pacific Partnership” as its component part.

But indeed, the US behavior on the continent has remained that of a bull in a china shop. And even if Barack Obama finds some explanations to appease hi Mexican and Brazilian counterparts, the long-lasting tendency is not going to be altered that easily.

Boris Volkhonsky, senior research fellow, Russian Institute for Strategic Studies