Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced in Brazil that his country will rejoin the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), of which he he retired in 2018 during the government of his predecessor, Iván Duque (2018-2022).

“I have decided to reintegrate the country into Unasur, ratify into law the treaty approved by Congress, and I have asked that it be renamed the Association of South American Nations to ensure pluralism and sustainability over time,” said the president in his Twitter account. Twitter.

Colombia had withdrawn from that union on August 10, 2018, just three days into Duque’s term, which deemed that body an “accomplice of the Venezuelan dictatorship”.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the leaders of South American countries met to discuss cooperation projects and try to get regional integration back on track after Unasur collapsed amid political turmoil in the countries.

“We allowed ourselves to be divided by ideologies and integration efforts interrupted, we abandoned channels of dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, and we all lost,” Brazil’s President Lula da Silva said before the closed meeting at Itamaraty, the headquarters of the foreign ministry.

Appointment Brazilia

Petro’s decision was only announced during his participation in a regional summit in Brasilia convened by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which resulted in a determined push for integration.

In addition to Petro, the summit was attended by Argentina’s presidents Alberto Fernández; Bolivia, Luis Arce; Chili, Gabriel Boric; Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; Guyana, Irfaan Ali; Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez; Surinam, Chan Santokhi; Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou and Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, while Peru was represented by the President of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola.

BRASIL. (From left to right) The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, of Suriname, Chan Santokhi, of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, of Bolivia, Luis Arce, of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, from Chile, Gabriel Boric, from Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, from Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, from Uruguay, Luis Lacalle, the President of the Council of Ministers of Peru, Alberto Otarola, pose for the official photo of the South American Summit at Itamaraty Palace.
Photo: EFE

On the right, Prosur was promoted to replace Unasur

When announcing the decision to withdraw Colombia from Unasur, Duque pointed out that the bloc, formed in Brazil in 2008, was created “to break the inter-American system” and added that it served as a “wild card for “the purposes of a dictatorship.”

Duque then stated that Unasur “never” denounced the Maduro government’s “disgraceful acts” and that it did not “exercise” its duty to guarantee that these actions did not “constitute the abolition of civil liberties” for any reason he considers it the “greatest henchman of the Venezuelan dictatorship”.

For this reason, a year later he created the Forum for the Progress of South America (Prosur)who wanted to replace Unasur.

Unasur entered a crisis in 2017 when its 12 member states failed to agree on a new secretary-general, a situation exacerbated by the conflicting views on the Venezuelan crisis.

Between 2018 and 2020, several Latin American states, including Argentina and Brazil, then ruled by right-wing presidents, decided to leave the bloc, assured that it was ideological, so Unasur, in which only Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru, was deactivated in practice.

This year, led by leftist leaders, Argentina and Brazil announced their return to the organization and in early April, the authorities of both countries met in Buenos Aires to address the challenges of reactivating Unasur.