The presence of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, was one of the stones in the shoe that was the summit of South American presidents in Brasilia, which was convened by the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“I was surprised when it was said that what is happening in Venezuela is a narrative,” said Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Lacalle, during his speech before Lula and the other leaders at the meeting called by the Brazilian to relaunch regional integration. He alluded to some words of Lulawho slipped a tacit defense to Ripe ensuring that there was built a “narrative” against him. Between the lines it was read that Lula denies that he is a dictator, a name with which a large part of the international community qualifies him.
The Latin American left is no longer detached from this vision. In recent years, the previous Costa Rican president, Carlos Alvarado, from the center left, had said that Venezuela lived under a dictatorship, and the current Chilean president, Gabriel Boric (totally left-wing) has maintained since his campaign that he sees totalitarianism in the Maduro government. without nuances or mitigations.
The Brasilia Consensus leaves Unasur out
Lula’s government pushed for the summit to end with a declaration of consensus between all the parties, but the final text signed by the eleven leaders had to leave out any mention of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), which was made clear in point 2 that was changed.
One of the most outstanding aspects was the omission in the final text of any mention of Unasur. In the initial version, in the sixth point, it was recognized “the contribution of the various South American integration mechanisms, including Unasur”. In addition, it was stated that efforts should be directed towards reaffirming the “shared objective of having a South American platform for dialogue and agreement that is inclusive, effective and permanent.”
However, in the official statement, all of this was replaced with the following: “They recognized the importance of maintaining a regular dialogue, in order to promote the integration process in South America and project the voice of the region in the world.”.
This omission raised concern among observers, as it seemed minimize the importance of Unasur in the context of regional integration. Unasur, formally known as the Union of South American Nations, has played a crucial role in fostering cooperation and dialogue among South American countries. Its objective has been to promote economic, political and social integration in the region. To the skip any reference to the Unasur, the official statement seems to downplay the achievements and contributions of this organization. But, for Lacalle Pou, it was an inalienable condition to remove that body from the text. and he made it.
The second change occurred in the subsequent item, which laid the foundations for the creation of “a contact group, headed by the foreign ministers, to evaluate the experiences of the South American integration mechanisms and the development of a road map for the integration of South America”.
Lacalle also pressed for concepts such as “multipolar world” to be changed, which for the right-wing president was a kind of underhanded rhetoric of “leftist” ideas, and “multiple crises” were also replaced by “challenges.”
