The summit underscores the region’s leftward shift and is expected to emphasize cooperation on issues such as finance and crime.
Leaders and representatives of 12 South American countries gathered in Brazil for a summit on Tuesday as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tries to revive the regional bloc formerly known as the Union of South American Nations, or UNASUR.
President Lula is expected to promote greater regional integration at the summit, held in the capital Brasília.
“We let ideology divide us and interrupt our efforts to integrate. We abandoned our dialogue channels and our cooperation mechanisms, and we all lost because of it,” Lula said on Tuesday.
The meeting underscores the changing political climate in South America, where left-wing political forces have seen a resurgence after years of largely conservative rule.
Lula and other leftist leaders co-founded UNASUR—announcing their intention in 2004 and signing a treaty in 2008—but the organization last met nine years ago, eventually fracturing as the region move to the right.
Today, the 12 countries of South America meet, which has not happened for almost 10 years. All regions of the world have common forums. Let’s move forward, with respect for differences and sovereignty.
🇦🇷@alferdez 🇧🇴@LuchoXBolivia 🇨🇱@GabrielBoric 🇨🇴@petrogustavo
📸: @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/7nIWhaH4Md
— Lula (@LulaOfficial) May 30, 2023
Tuesday’s summit took place behind closed doors, but expected topics of discussion include energy, finance, crime and the fight against climate change.
“This is the first meeting they’ve had in nine years, and that’s a very, very long time,” Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman reported in a television interview from Brasilia. “And all of this is trying to find a way to bring back what once seemed to be on the road map here in the region, which is… South American integration.”
In another sign of the region’s shift to the left, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro received a warm welcome from Lula, just years after Lula’s right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro barred him from entry in Brazil Under Bolsonaro’s administration, Brazil supported Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s unsuccessful bid to claim the presidency of Venezuela.
Lula’s embrace of Maduro has been controversial, with critics accusing him of turning a blind eye to Venezuela’s record jailing of opposition members and allegations of election rigging.
In 2018, Colombia withdrew from UNASUR after the country’s right-wing ex-president Ivan Duque accused the group of complicity in the “Venezuelan dictatorship”. Duque’s successor, leftist President Gustavo Petro, has moved to ease tensions with Venezuela after years of hostility, seeking areas of shared interest such as border security cooperation.
Temir Porras, a former foreign policy adviser to late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez who helped co-found UNASUR, told Al Jazeera in a television interview that the summit is a positive step.
“I think it’s a great initiative by President Lula da Silva,” he said. “South American integration is probably not possible without Brazil’s participation. Brazil is the largest country in the region, it is the main economy and it is a global diplomatic power.”
However, he said, integration will have to lead to tangible benefits for the organization to avoid fragmentation if the continent’s political landscape changes again.
“This time the lesson to be learned is that this integration must be pragmatic. It must be practical. It must translate into benefits for the majority of the South American population to last,” said Porras.
