2023-05-30 20:17:54
He Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called this Tuesday in Brasilia to overcome the “ideological” divisions and recompose the dialogue between the countries of South Americain the first meeting of the continent’s leaders in almost a decade.
Eleven leaders are participating in the meeting cited by Lula, whose main objective is to resume dialogue and analyze the possibility of the region once again having a “purely South American” integration forum that is “permanent, inclusive and modern.”
The event was attended by the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, the Argentine Alberto Fernández, the Chilean Gabriel Boric, the Colombian Gustavo Petro, the Paraguayan Abdo Benítez, the Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso, the Bolivian Luis Arce, the Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou and the Surinamese Chan Santoki. Peru is represented by the chief of staff, Alberto Otárola.
At the opening of the summit, Lula proposed creating a “high level group”, made up of representatives of the presidents, who prepare a new “road map for the integration of South America” within 120 days.
Lula assured that the region can no longer wait to overcome in conditions of unity the social abysses that persist “since colonialism” and He proposed a sort of decalogue for the new integration of the region.
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Eleven leaders attend the summit called by Lula in Brazil.
Thus, the president proposed “putting regional savings at the service of economic and social development”, through regional financial organizations, and analyzing the possibility of using local currencies in South American trade, in order to reduce the high dependence on the dollar.
He also proposed to discuss initiatives to standardize regulations and reduce bureaucracy in the commercial area, expand electronic commerce and fundamentally “update the project portfolio” for the physical integration of the region, designed more than two decades ago and most of it completely unfinished. .
Lula’s “decalogue” also included the possible creation of a “South American energy market, that ensures supply, efficient use of resources, legal stability, fair prices and social and environmental sustainability”.
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A commitment to regional integration
Since he returned to power in January, Lula has tried to restore Brazil’s leading role on the international scene and now intends to relaunch regional integration through a new version of Unasur, of which only seven of the 12 founding members remain.
“We let ideologies divide us and interrupt integration efforts, we abandoned dialogue channels and cooperation mechanisms, and with that we all lost,” Lula said in his opening speech before the other leaders at the Itamaraty palace, seat of the foreign ministry. Brazilian.
And he added: “The elements that unite us are above ideological differences.”
And it is that a meeting between the South American leaders had not happened since 2014 in Quito, during the Unasur summit. Created in 2008 by Lula and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez to counter US influence in the region, the Union of South American Nations was criticized for years by some for having a leftist bias.
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Colombian President Gustavo Petro, upon entering the summit of South American presidents in Brasilia.
After conservative victories at the polls, internal political instability, and disagreements between countries over the Venezuelan crisis, the Unasur bloc was left practically paralyzed, with no budget and no headquarters.
Now, the new meeting in Brazil, according to what Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said, will seek to identify “coincidences” and “not differences.” It is, according to the Brazilian minister, to open a “frank and direct conversation” to discuss “concrete initiatives” in various areas, such as physical infrastructure and border security, in a high-level dialogue “free of ideological charges”.
For Jason Marczak, of the Atlantic Council in Washington, the appointment “is potentially a first attempt by Lula to see what can be achieved” on South American integration. “Lula is looking for how to make” that his third presidency serve to “insert Brazil even more as a leader and advance a great variety of global issues,” he told the AFP.
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However, the first major meeting of South American heads of state since 2014 It is celebrated with many of these leaders weighed down by internal problems that have consumed his attention and overshadowed Lula’s ambitious plan to boost regional relations.
There is a natural tendency to look inward and deal with one’s own problems.
The economies of the region remain weak, with particular concern for Bolivia and Argentina. The new leaders, who were initially greeted with much fanfare in countries like Chile and Colombia, are now facing declining popularity. Others, like Peru and Ecuador, have suffered deep political crises.
“It would be necessary to go back almost to the military dictatorships to think of a more worrying set of circumstances in South America,” said Michael Shifter, a researcher and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a US-based think tank.
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“There is a natural tendency to look inward and deal with one’s own problems rather than seek more regional cooperation,” says Shifter.
Eduardo Mello, an internationalist from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, agrees with this, for whom the meeting will be “merely symbolic”.
“There are structural problems, the region has been going through political and economic crises for more than a decade, and the main South American economic development projects have failed. They are structural factors that are not resolved with will, talking“Mello said to the AFP.
Just a basic dialogue between heads of state is genuine progress
The Brazilian government has recognized the challenges facing the group of leaders, such as ideological differences on the continent, the prospects for political change posed by this year’s presidential elections in Paraguay and Argentina, and the recent turmoil in Peru and Ecuador. .
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But even in this context, Brazilian officials stated before the meeting that they will work to create a more permanent framework for dialogue after the failure of previous efforts.
“While innovative visions for the future of South America or announcements to promote regional integration are unlikely to emerge, just a basic dialogue between heads of state is genuine progress,” Oliver Stuenkel, professor of International Relations at the University of California, wrote in this regard. Getulio Vargas Foundation, in the Americas Quarterly publication.
After Lula’s intervention, the official transmission of the summit was suspended due to the private nature of the meeting. According to the official program, each president will intervene in a first plenary and then there will be a second, defined as “Dialogue between the Presidents.”
The closure is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. local time, after which some presidents will return to their countries and others will attend a dinner that Lula will offer at the Alvorada Palace, his official residence in Brasilia.
They have not yet announced if there will be a joint final declaration.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from agencies
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