{"id":8130,"date":"2023-05-29T04:13:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T08:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8130"},"modified":"2023-05-30T04:16:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T08:16:13","slug":"south-americas-presidents-gather-in-brazil-for-first-regional-summit-in-9-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8130","title":{"rendered":"South America\u2019s Presidents Gather in Brazil for First Regional Summit in 9 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, shakes hands with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro prior to their bilateral meeting at Planalto palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, May 29, 2023. Maduro is in Brazil for the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) summit that starts on Tuesday. (AP Photo\/Gustavo Moreno)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South America\u2019s leaders will gather in Brazil\u2019s capital on Tuesday as part of President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2019s attempt to reinvigorate regional integration efforts that have previously floundered amid the continent\u2019s political swings and polarization.<\/p>\n

Analysts say Lula senses an opportunity for integration because of the political affinities of the region\u2019s current governments and appears to want to test leaders\u2019 willingness to cooperate through a revived Union of South American Nations, or Unasur.<\/p>\n

Lula said at a news conference Monday that the leaders should discuss cooperation in energy and crime-fighting, and suggested he might consider floating the idea of a regional currency to challenge the U.S dollar. But he said nothing would be decided during the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main idea is that we need to form a bloc to work together,\u201d Lula said.<\/p>\n

First established 15 years ago in Brazil\u2019s capital during the second presidential term of Lula, a former trade unionist, the regional bloc sought to integrate the 12 South American nations culturally, socially, politically and economically.<\/p>\n

Unasur\u2019s promotor was late Venezuelan president Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who saw it as means to counteract U.S. influence in the region and the group had a reputation among some as having a leftist bent.<\/p>\n

But a subsequent swing to the right on the continent saw the group fracture. The last meeting with all Unasur\u2019s members took place in 2014. After 2017, disagreements over Unasur\u2019s leadership and the participation of Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro led seven countries to withdraw, including Brazil in 2019 under Lula\u2019s predecessor, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnasur\u2019s greatest problem is that it was built in a moment when there were leftist leaders, and it shattered when right-wing leaders came along,\u201d said Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor at Get\u00falio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank in Sao Paulo. \u201cIt is easy to talk about its comeback now, but they need to think of ways to make this second attempt last.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting in Brasilia will bring together 11 South American presidents and the leader of the Council of Ministers of Peru, whose president, Dina Boluarte, faces charges and cannot leave the country. The meeting has been officially promoted as an encounter for South American heads of state, as Brazil does not wish to impose Unasur\u2019s revival.<\/p>\n

Lula on Monday underlined that this week\u2019s meeting was just about getting together to build cohesion and discuss ideas. \u201cTomorrow\u2019s meeting doesn\u2019t decide anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that he has a \u201cdream\u201d to have a regional currency \u201cso that we can do business without depending on the dollar, because the dollar belongs to the United States and it can do whatever it wants with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge, analysts say, will be having a bloc that can survive the region\u2019s political shifts and instability.<\/p>\n

\n

While the majority of South America\u2019s current presidents are leftist or centrist, there\u2019s no guarantee the situation will remain that way. This was underscored in May by the success of right-wingers in Chile in a vote to select commission members to write a new constitution. That success came on the heels of voters\u2019 rejection of a leftist-influenced draft to replace the Chile\u2019s dictatorship-era charter. A similar swing toward the right is possible in Argentina, given that incumbent President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez will not seek reelection this year amid rampant inflation.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s Maduro arrived Monday for the Brasilia gathering, providing the opportunity for the first official bilateral meeting between Lula and the Venezuelan leader.<\/p>\n

Under Bolsonaro, Brazil prohibited Maduro and many members of his government from entering the country, and it recognized opposition leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as the legitimate president of Venezuela.<\/p>\n

At a joint news conference between Lula and Maduro later Monday, said it is a \u201chistoric moment\u201d for both countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 8 years, president Maduro returns to visit Brazil and we get back the right to do our foreign affairs policy with the seriousness we always had, especially with countries which share borders with Brazil,\u201d Lula said.<\/p>\n

Maduro pointed out both leaders reestablished \u201can open and permanent dialogue between Brazil and Venezuela\u2019s governments\u201d. He also said that \u201cunion and diversity\u201d should rule over \u201cextremist and intolerant ideologies\u201d which have tried to isolate Venezuela from the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Both leaders said they were interested in boosting trade between their countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter if both governments agree with each other, Venezuela is a neighbor and can\u2019t be ignored or have diplomatic ties broken, as we have practical issues that need to be solved,\u201d said Carolina Silva Pedroso, an international relations professor at Sao Paulo\u2019s Federal University.<\/p>\n

Pedroso said Brazil could be a mediator in Venezuela\u2019s political crisis, and it wants to reduce the number of immigrants crossing the border into Brazil, more than 400,000 since 2018.<\/p>\n

But the group must overcome its legacy and struggles.<\/p>\n

Unasur \u201ccouldn\u2019t lead important projects in cooperation in diverse areas after some governments were electorally defeated,\u201d said Pedroso. \u201cAnd it did not establish a direct connection with the populations in its countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The political instability in many South American countries will make it hard for leaders to move initiatives forward, analysts said.<\/p>\n

Stuenkel said Brazil will want to guarantee that all the presidents meeting have some sort of diplomatic relationship, \u201cbut this will crash when a new president comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCountries in the region need to think how they will react when Argentina breaks, or if any bilateral crisis evolves, such as Colombia and Peru\u2019s conflict in the border,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Peru\u2019s image has been damaged by criticism of Boluarte after her office violently repressed antigovernment protests following the ouster of her predecessor, Pedro Castillo.<\/p>\n

Colombia, now governed by a leftist, has been critical of Boluarte\u2019s government and both countries have cut diplomatic relations. They also hold a century-long dispute along their shared border over territory and responsibilities to halt drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

Ecuador faces political instability which grew stronger in May, when president Guillermo Lasso dissolved parliament after facing an impeachment inquiry. New general elections are scheduled for later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Unasur without 12 countries would not solve the region\u2019s issues,\u201d said Gisela Padovan, secretary for Latin America and Caribbean at Brazil\u2019s Foreign Affairs Ministry. \u201cAnd we need something permanent that does not depend on particular governments.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Carla Bridi, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South America\u2019s leaders will gather in Brazil\u2019s capital on Tuesday as part of President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2019s attempt to reinvigorate regional integration efforts that have previously floundered amid the continent\u2019s political swings and polarization. Analysts say Lula senses an opportunity for integration because of the political affinities of the region\u2019s current governments and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/baa796bb24e54460b17c37292b3907ca\/800.webp","fifu_image_alt":"South America\u2019s Presidents Gather in Brazil for First Regional Summit in 9 Years","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8132,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8130\/revisions\/8132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}