The start of the discussion on the initiative will take place at a meeting on the 3rd (May 30); Lula wants a broad block, despite political differences
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will propose to the presidents of South America the creation of a new coordination mechanism with the participation of all countries in the region. The objective is to resume a joint deliberation space for regional integration, despite political differences between governments.
The proposal will be presented on Tuesday (May 30, 2023), when Lula will receive his counterparts for the meeting of presidents of South American countries. The meeting will last all day at Itamaraty, in Brasília. It will be the 1st meeting with the entire group since 2014, when there was the last meeting of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) with all the nations of the bloc.
Will participate in the meeting:
- Alberto Fernández, President of Argentina;
- Luis Arce, President of Bolivia;
- Gabriel Boric, President of Chile;
- Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia;
- Guillermo Lasso, President of Ecuador;
- Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana;
- Mario Abdo Benítez, President of Paraguay;
- Chan Santokhi, President of Suriname;
- Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, President of Uruguay;
- Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela
The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, is banned from leaving the country, so she will be represented by the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola.
Lula is expected to have bilateral meetings with some of his counterparts. One of them will be the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. It will be the 1st time that the Venezuelan will come to Brazil after being banned by former President Jair Bolsonaro in 2019. Other heads of state also asked for reserved meetings with the Brazilian, but the agendas with the president have not yet been confirmed.
According to ambassador Gisela Maria Figueiredo Padovan, Itamaraty’s secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, the meeting will have a format similar to a “retreat”, that is, it will be less formal, which will make room, according to her, for a more frank dialogue between the presidents.
“President Lula’s main motivation is to resume dialogue with South American countries. It is necessary, 1st, to identify common denominators. Our region has resources and capabilities that will be key to the future of humanity. A united region is stronger”, said Padovan.
The ambassador stated that the meeting on the 3rd (May 30) will have 3 main objectives:
- resume dialogue among all countries in the region to seek a common vision;
- build a concrete agenda of cooperation initiatives in areas such as health, infrastructure, environment, fight against organized crime and others;
- initiate discussions to resume a purely South American integration mechanism.
In January, when he traveled to Argentina, Lula announced his return from Brazil to CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). The country had left the bloc in 2020 by decision of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
For Padovan, the region’s integration has been weakened especially in the last 4 years and now Lula and other presidents intend to reorganize themselves into a permanent group, which does not remain “to the tide of governments and be a project of States.
In April, the government announced Brazil’s return to Unasur, which is paralyzed due to lack of resources and its own agenda. The group, which once had 12 countries in the region as members, now has, in addition to Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela. Peru is suspended.
“South America today is perhaps the only region in the world that does not have a dialogue mechanism between all of its countries”, said the ambassador.
According to Padovan, political-ideological differences between the presidents can be overcome by resuming dialogue and respect for individual positions.
“We are looking at the summit as a starting point. We are aware that there are differences in vision and ideological orientation among several countries, so for that very reason we consider it a start. The heads of state will dialogue to seek common ground”, said the diplomat.
“Either it integrates for good or it integrates for evil. We already know the evil: drug trafficking, smuggling, organized crime. There the region is united. So we need to counter that with action by governments to create positive action that, apparently, doesn’t come alone,” completed.
Asked whether the political moment in Latin America, with political and economic crises in Peru, Argentina and Ecuador, for example, would not jeopardize the start of discussions for the formation of a new bloc, the diplomat said that there is no way to wait for an ideal moment. .
“This is the reality of countries, they have elections, they have upheavals, problems. If we’re going to wait for everyone to be nice and tidy, we’re not going to sit down and talk. The idea is to sit down to talk with each one’s reality. We maintain the posture of respecting the internal situation of each one”, he said.
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