South American Union -
More Proactive Stance Needed
By Marcela Valente*
BUENOS AIRES (IPS) - The Union of South
American Nations (UNASUR), still
institutionally rather flimsy according
to analysts, is holding a summit meeting
in Argentina Tuesday to deal with
immediate issues, while the medium and
long-term items on its agenda remain
pending.
"So far, UNASUR has been fairly
effective -- within the limits of its
own design -- at containing public
evils, but not at boosting the public
good," Federico Merke, professor of
international relations theory at the
Universidad del Salvador in Buenos
Aires, told IPS.
This was his summary of the brief
history and prospects of UNASUR, created
in May 2008 in Brasilia and made up of
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay,
Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The member countries' leaders are
meeting in Campana, in Buenos Aires
province, about 60 kilometres northwest
of the Argentine capital.
The summit will discuss aid for Haiti
and Chile, which were devastated by
earthquakes this year, as well as the
election of the bloc's secretary
general, and move forward on issues to
do with "the present political, social
and economic circumstances of the member
countries," according to the Argentine
Foreign Ministry.
"The agenda follows the same logic as
that of previous meetings," said Merke.
"We are always behind the events, and
this meeting is just the same. There is
no proactive agenda to make progress on
issues like infrastructure or
cooperation for development, which are
not on UNASUR's agenda yet."
Argentine political scientist and
sociologist Atilio Borón, professor of
political theory at the state University
of Buenos Aires, told IPS that UNASUR
"is a very important initiative that
needs to consolidate its institutional
foundations, elect its secretary, and
expand ratification" by its members of
the founding treaty.
So far, only five out of UNASUR's 12
national parliaments have ratified the
treaty: those of Bolivia, Ecuador,
Guyana, Peru and Venezuela.
Parliamentary approval in nine countries
is necessary for it to enter into force.
In Borón's view, UNASUR must advance
towards its institutional consolidation,
and it should monitor the agreement
between Colombia and the United States
allowing Washington to use seven
Colombian military bases.
This bilateral agreement sparked
controversy and concern among Colombia's
neighbours, prompting an extraordinary
summit of UNASUR, held in the southern
Argentine mountain resort of Bariloche
in August 2009.
At that meeting, the South American
presidents asked Colombia to spell out
the contents of the agreement in detail,
but very little information has been
forthcoming. "It is worrying that this
topic is not on the agenda," Borón said.
In April, Brazil signed a military
cooperation agreement with the United
States, but in this case the details of
the agreement were circulated to the
UNASUR partners, and no conflicts are
anticipated when the presidents discuss
it.
Bolivian Foreign Minister David
Choquehuanca said, "If the information
(about the Brasilia-Washington
agreement) is transparent, there will be
no reason for us to be touchy about
it…It's not the same as Colombia's
(agreement)," he said.
Merke said that there has been progress
in UNASUR's Defence Council, which was
set up to "head off risks of bilateral
tensions and promote cooperation between
the states." But, he wondered, "what if
the child (the Council) should get ahead
of the parent?"
UNASUR's Defence Council, founded in
December 2008, has its own statutes and
will be in charge of monitoring the
military agreement between Bogotá and
Washington. But the absence of a
Secretariat to plan programmes,
schedules and responsibilities makes it
"very difficult to coordinate anything,"
Merke said.
In order to have a solid grounding and
avoid being ineffectual, UNASUR needs
more institutional support from its
members, he said.
"Otherwise the bloc may bite off more
than it can chew," he warned. "Getting
together to repudiate the (June 2009)
coup in Honduras is no bad thing, but
then, what actual difference did it
make?" asked Merke, who admits he is
sceptical about substantial progress
being made at the Campana summit.
Merke and Barón deplored UNASUR's
institutional weakness, due especially
to the lack of ratifications by member
countries and the delay in appointing a
secretary-general, who may be elected at
the summit if a consensus is achieved.
The candidate is former Argentine
president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007),
the husband of current President
Cristina Fernández, whose appointment
has been formally opposed by the
Uruguayan government because of the
longstanding bilateral conflict over a
pulp mill installed on the Uruguayan
bank of a border river.
Other members may be reluctant to agree
to his appointment for less explicit
reasons.
In Merke's view, Kirchner's candidacy
reflects a shortage "in the supply of
available leadership," but the former
president "can be regarded as a
moderate" between opposed radical
tendencies headed by left-wing
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and
right-wing Colombian President Álvaro
Uribe.
In a more upbeat tone, Paz Milet of the
Institute of International Studies at
the state University of Chile told IPS
that "UNASUR has had difficulty in
consolidating itself, but in the last
few weeks Ecuador has been very active
on the diplomatic front to secure more
ratifications (of the treaty) and a
consensus on Kirchner's candidacy."
The Chilean analyst said bilateral
problems were unlikely to be solved at
Campana, but she emphasised the ability
of UNASUR to "position itself as a very
effective forum for dialogue," as it did
in 2008 in response to the Bolivian
political crisis.
Meanwhile, Merke did not rule out the
possibility that the summit would
address the situation in Honduras. Most
UNASUR countries broke off relations
with Honduras at the time of the Jun. 28
coup, and do not recognise the
government of President Porfirio Lobo,
who took power in January.
Nor is it impossible that Paraguayan
President Fernando Lugo might raise the
topic of the armed insurgency in the
north of his country, which led him to
declare a state of emergency in five
provinces and deploy the army to combat
the small rebel group.
But Merke said that if these issues are
addressed, it will be within the
framework of present circumstances, and
not as part of a much-needed long-term
focus on development.
* With additional reporting by Daniela
Estrada in Santiago. |
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