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The Peruvian government reported that as of August 1 it will assume the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance. This should have happened at the beginning of this year, but the public confrontations between President Dina Boluarte and her Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose country was the leader of the trade bloc, which has Colombia and Chile as members, prevented it.
What is the Pacific Alliance?
A regional initiative whose members are Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. It also has four countries in the process of incorporation, such as Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Ecuador.
In addition, it has more than forty nations as observers, including the United States, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
The Lima Declaration, signed on April 28, 2011, was the agreement for the founding of the Pacific Alliance.
“Encourage regional integration, as well as greater growth, development and competitiveness of the economies of their countries, while committing to progressively move towards the goal of achieving the free movement of goods, services, capital and people”, was part of the statement.
Throughout these months, López Obrador refused to transfer the presidency of the alliance to Boluarte because he did not recognize his investiture as Peru’s president.
López Obrador openly continues to support former President Pedro Castillo, who is serving 18 months in pretrial detention in a Lima jail for having promoted a failed coup in December 2022 against Parliament, which ended up removing him from office.
The conflict escalated because Colombian President Gustavo Petro also took the same stance as López Obrador and questioned Boluarte’s legitimacy. Faced with this situation, the management of Chilean leader Gabriel Boric had to intervene as an intermediary in the matter and succeeded, because he reported that they received the presidency of the Pacific Alliance that corresponded to Peru and in a month they will return it.
This gesture was highlighted by the Peruvian Foreign Ministry in a statement.
“The agreement reached reflects the political will to continue betting on Latin American integration, which favors dialogue, economic-commercial exchange, cooperation and international integration,” they said.
However, experts consulted by the voice of america They maintain that the change of command of the Pacific Alliance does not guarantee that the diplomatic impasses between Boluarte, López Obrador and Petro will end.
political deterioration
Former foreign minister and internationalist Miguel Rodríguez Mackay told the VOA that the Pacific Alliance is on the way to suffering a “worrying deterioration that would put the political and commercial nature of this bloc at risk.”
“There is a lack of vocation to maintain the stability of the most successful deep integration mechanism in the Pacific,” he said.
The expert questioned López Obrador for wanting to have a negative impact on the Pacific Alliance by not directly handing over the presidency to Peru and temporarily ceding it to Chile. In his opinion, the government of Dina Boluarte should not have accepted this triangulation because it would be the predictor of the obstacles that the Morena leader would put up in the coming months.
“The quality of Dina Boluarte as president of the Republic will continue to be diminished by calling her a ‘usurper’ because she will not attend any meeting that she calls as president of the Pacific Alliance,” he explained.
In addition, Rodríguez Mackay assured that this line could also be adopted by Gustavo Petro because “he is a notorious defender of Pedro Castillo, whom he still recognizes as president of Peru and not Dina Boluarte.”
edges
Gattas Abugattas, Master in Diplomacy and International Relations from the Diplomatic School of Spain, mentioned the VOA that there are two perspectives of the delivery of the presidency of the Pacific Alliance to Peru.
“On the one hand, international law was finally complied with because through the mediation of Chile, Peru will be able to have the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance accordingly. And on the other hand, it is the way in which the transfer is made that responds to López Obrador’s immature conduct, ”he said.
The expert stressed that the Peruvian Foreign Ministry had a pragmatic stance to overcome the alliance’s entrapment so that it could function again before the well-known conflicts between President Dina Boluarte and her counterparts López Obrador and Petro.
How many summits have been held?
- There have been 17 summits of the Pacific Alliance in the last eleven years.
- Peru hosted the event three times during the governments of Alan García (2006-2011), Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020).
- Colombia was the host four times, Mexico and Chile three times each.
“Apart from the discrepancies between Boluarte and López Obrador, the foreign ministries of Peru, Colombia, Chile and Mexico maintain an open dialogue that responds to years of relations between the four countries. It is precisely this that has made it possible to transcend impasses to achieve an intermediate solution, ”he emphasized.
Abugattas considered that Peru and Chile are the countries most interested in the Pacific Alliance working, unlike “Mexico, which is more concerned about its relationship with the United States and Colombia about what happens in its relationship with Europe,” he explained. “While there is less intervention from Mexico and Colombia, the alliance will work better,” he noted.
Diplomacy
Óscar Vidarte, Master in International Relations from the Pontifical Javeriana University of Colombia, remarked to the VOA the importance of diplomacy to unblock the crisis that existed regarding the operation of the Pacific Alliance.
“In recent times we had moved away from diplomacy to assume a more confrontational discourse. The country’s relations cannot be built on the basis of insults and media attacks on Twitter. I think that our relationship with Mexico and Colombia took place there, but what this meeting has shown [en Santiago para acordar la transferencia de la Alianza del Pacífico] It is that agreements can be reached that allow Peru to exercise a right that corresponds to it”, he pointed out.
However, the expert mentioned that the Pacific Alliance will have “serious problems to develop.”
“The Pacific Alliance is an intergovernmental body because it depends on the four member countries [Perú, México, Colombia y Chile] to reach agreements, the meetings and the consensus they have”, he added.
Vidarte mentioned that, apart from Peru assuming the pro tempore presidency, “little progress will be made if the relationship with Colombia and Mexico continues to be very bad.” Despite this, the internationalist did not dare to mention whether López Obrador and Petro will hinder Boluarte’s leadership of the trade bloc in the coming months.
“I don’t think they represent a danger to the operation of the Pacific Alliance,” he said.
In this scenario for lowering tensions, Vidarte pointed out that the new Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena could play a key role in the progressive restoration of diplomatic ties between her country and Peru.
“We would have to take advantage of the context and diplomacy again to get closer to Mexico. The relationship will not improve as long as Boluarte and López Obrador continue to govern both countries, but at least with a little pragmatism we can have the party in peace, ”he said.
The expert highlighted that Chile has played a transcendental role in this difficult context to make the pro tempore presidency viable for Peru, but acknowledged that the southern country also does so because it is very interested in making the trade bloc work, unlike Mexico and Colombia.
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