South America: Integration at the crossroads

From alainet.org

The recent summit of heads of state for the South American Community of Nations (CSN) left exposed not only the difficulties of coming to terms for regional integration based on the models of MERCOSUR and CAN (the Andean Community of Nations), but also the capacity for initiative of the President of Venezuela.

Hugo Chávez came close to wrecking the summit in Brasilia held on September 30 to set the CSN on its feet, by refusing to sign the formal Declaration. Chávez criticised the institutional structure for repeating the failed formulas of MERCOSUR and the Andean Community of Nations and, in the frank and direct style for which he is known, held that, along that road, regional integration will only just have become reality "in the year 2200".

No one contradicted the Venezuelan President, perhaps because at bottom all accept that he is right. The Brazilian Minister of External Relations, Celso Amorim, admitted that the documents which Chávez was refusing to sign - the Brasilia Declaration – were just "political declarations" and that the 12 countries of the CSN should negotiate a treaty that would give form to the community. "In a reaction approaching panic, and flushed red, Lula declared that if Chávez did not change his mind the heads of state would leave Brasilia "as paralyzed as when we arrived", according to press reports. (1)

Amorim proposed that, within 90 days, the debate on five of the 20 proposals be finalized on the format of the community that still had not been approved, and that they respond to the suggestions presented by Presidents Chávez and Tabaré Vásquez (absent from the meeting like the Presidents of Colombia, Guyana, Surinam). Before accepting, Chávez assured that he would not discuss those issues with Ministers but only with Presidents. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pressured by the circumstances, came around to proposing that, in order to speed up the debates, discussions between the Presidents take place via fax, telephone and e-mail. Chávez accepted and everyone headed to Itamaraty for a private lunch, knowing that in reality everything remained up in the air.