The Brazilian president urged his peers to resume integration after the failure of Unasur, but his Uruguayan counterpart questioned the will of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to omit that Nicolás Maduro heads “a dictatorship” and pretend that the condemnation of the situation in Venezuela it is a mere “narrative”. The Chilean president also expressed his criticism of the violation of human rights in the Caribbean country.
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Almost a decade later and with the return of the left to power in various South American countries, the region’s presidents met in Brasilia, where the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called for overcoming “ideological” differences and work on regional integration through a new version of Unasur.
“We let ideologies divide us and interrupt integration efforts, we abandoned dialogue channels and cooperation mechanisms, and with that we all lost,” Lula said before the closed-door meeting in Itamaraty, headquarters of the foreign ministry.
However, his words clashed with the statements of the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, who highlighted the divisions between the South American heads of state, criticizing that Lula defended Nicolás Maduro the day before by assuring that the accusations of authoritarianism in Venezuela they are a “narrative”.
“I was surprised when it was said that what is happening in Venezuela is a narrative,” Lacalle said during his speech before the presidents.
“The worst thing we can do is cover the sun with one finger (…) Let’s give (Venezuela) the name it has and help,” said Lacalle, who describes Maduro as a “dictator.”
To the harsh questioning of the center-right president was added that of the Chilean Gabriel Boric. The leftist president said that the Venezuelan situation “is not a narrative construction” but “a serious reality.” “Human rights must always be respected,” he said.
The Chilean president also supported Caracas’s repeated request to call on the United States and the European Union to dismantle the sanctions that weigh on Maduro and his government.
Attacks on journalists
For his part, Maduro retorted, stating that these countries “have a vision” and Venezuela, “another.” “The most important thing is that there has been a debate,” he said, announcing “a new stage” of South American integration.
The Venezuelan leader’s departure from the building at the end of the afternoon attracted a crowd of journalists and confusion ensued that ended with attacks by Brazilian security forces against the communicators.
In addition to Lula, Maduro, Boric and Lacalle, the meeting was attended by the presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; from Colombia, Gustavo Petro; from Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez; the one from Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; that of Bolivia, Luis Arce; Guyana’s, Irfaan Ali, and Suriname’s, Chan Santokhi.
Peru was represented by the chief of staff, Alberto Otárola.
The meeting closed with a consensual declaration in pursuit of strengthening integration to “face shared challenges” and increase trade and investment, but without concrete agreements. A working group was also created made up of the foreign ministers of the twelve countries, which must meet in 120 days to analyze the progress.
South America “is united in speeches, but not in concrete projects,” Petro had told reporters upon arrival.
(With information from AFP)
