/ world today news/ Brazil confidently assumes the role of leader in Latin America. Brazilian President Inacio Lula de Silva is actively building a new system of international relations, turning the region into one of the centers of the multipolar world. Proof of this is the summit of the presidents of 12 Latin American countries held on Tuesday in Brazil, initiated by the Brazilian leader.
A battering ram in international politics
The foreign policy activity of Inacio Lula da Silva, who recently became president of Brazil for the third time after an interruption, can be compared to a battering ram.
He has already shocked the US with his call to abandon the use of the US dollar in payments between the BRICS countries and in international trade in general. Lula is now calling for a stronger South America on the global stage, where the economic and political upheaval caused by Russia’s special operation in Ukraine is reconfiguring alliances and opening new political-economic spaces from Southeast Asia to Latin America.
Lula da Silva, like no one else in Latin America, saw the new opportunities that arose as a result of the fact that Russia openly challenged the United States and the entire collective West.
What is the point of the summit? Lula’s idea is to restart the regional dialogue, which has been greatly weakened in recent years. Ideological divisions undermined an earlier attempt at regional cooperation within the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), created by leftist presidents in 2008.
This relationship was paralyzed when right-wing governments later came to power in several countries in the region and provoked diplomatic rifts across the continent. Now Lula, as they say, is trying to reset the positions. He wants to revive South American integration.
But first, leaders must at least identify the common denominators and henceforth resume cooperation to solve global, regional and individual problems,
Gisela Padovan, secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this in her speech. It was the search for “common denominators” that the participants of the last summit took up.
A new alliance is on the horizon
The initiative of the president of Brazil found a lively response. The participants in the meeting emphasized the common will to resume dialogue in the region and the search for a concrete agenda for cooperation in various socio-economic areas.
They discussed the need to create a new regional union, the goal of which will be economic integration and joint development based on the collective defense of independence, in order to create a single Latin American military, political, economic and cultural space.
Opinions have been expressed about reviving for this purpose the already mentioned UNASUR association or the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), created in 2004 by the late Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro in opposition to the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA).
It is now clear that the future new union of Latin American countries, created from scratch or reformed, has every chance to become more radical than ever in its opposition to the US, which traditionally considers Latin America as its “backyard”.
Lula attacks the US dollar again at this summit. He urged Latin American state banks to “work together to finance development” and said the region should reduce its reliance on “non-regional currencies” for trade, ie. dollar.
He also proposed the creation of a regional energy market. This proposal can also be called rebellious, since it obviously includes the active participation of Venezuela, which is under many sanctions from the United States.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, but has not received significant dividends from this in recent years due to US sanctions that prevent oil exports. The implementation of this proposal will bring real money to the Venezuelan economy and contribute to the country’s exit from the crisis.
Venezuela is back
One of the important tasks of the summit in Brazil, which Lula has set himself, is the exit of Venezuela from diplomatic isolation in the region. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was invited to Brazil for an official visit a day before the Latin American summit.
And the next day, Maduro was a participant in a general assembly of presidents representing those Latin American countries that until recently (albeit under different leaders) joined the persecution of the Venezuelan leadership initiated by Washington and recognized the “interim president” of Venezuela. Juan Guaido appointed by the United States.
Nicolás Maduro’s visit, deliberately planned for the day of the meeting, is a loud political démarche by official Brazil. It is clear to everyone that, in addition to Cuba and Nicaragua, Venezuela has another friend and ally in Latin America, which does not hesitate to talk about it openly.
The peculiarity of this situation is that Venezuela and its old friends Cuba and Nicaragua are allies of Russia in Latin America together. Thus, under the new president, Brazil unequivocally and publicly declared its pro-Russian political and ideological orientation.
In a press conference after a bilateral meeting with Maduro, Lula blamed the United States for the socio-economic crisis of recent years in Venezuela.
The cause of this crisis, according to Lula, is the Western “rhetoric that Maduro’s government is not democratic and is authoritarian.” He suggested that the Venezuelan government “build its own narrative and then Venezuela will once again become a sovereign state where only the Maduro government will rule.”
“Your people will determine in a free vote who will govern. And then our opponents will have to apologize for the damage they have caused,” Lula told the Venezuelan president.
Lula’s statement that he was positive about Venezuela becoming a BRICS member could be considered a breakthrough in Venezuela’s diplomatic blockade.
Basic question
Lula da Silva’s decision to convene the South American presidents for a meeting in Brazil is not only about a new phase of regional integration and renewed construction of a regional union.
The Brazilian press notes that “leading South America is the only way for Brazil to ensure that it can be considered a legitimate candidate for permanent membership in the UN Security Council.”
Lula believes that the reform of the international system is urgent and that “the stalemate with the expansion of the UN Security Council is exacerbating the crisis of confidence in the world”. Meanwhile, Russia is advocating for Brazil, as Latin America’s largest country, to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, thus representing the entire continent.
Time will tell how successful the Brazilian president’s efforts will be. But one thing is certain. In the last four years (under former President Jair Bolsonaro), Brazil’s leading role in the region has disappeared, and with it the position of a natural representative of the continent.
At various international events, South America was represented by Chile, Colombia or Argentina. Bolsonaro suspended presidential diplomacy for ideological reasons and politically isolated Brazil from its regional environment, refusing to visit neighboring countries.
Bolsonaro has closed five embassies in the Caribbean. As an example of Brazil’s loss of importance, Jamaica closed its embassy in Brazil. Diplomatic relations with Venezuela were severed.
Bolsonaro has taken an extremely hostile stance towards Bolivian President Evo Morales in the context of his ouster in the November 2019 coup d’état, which current Brazilian officials say “is not in line with Brazilian diplomatic tradition and needs to be clarified.”
In addition, Bolsonaro dismantled a number of regional integration projects. He denounced the founding treaty of UNASUR, suspended Brazil’s participation in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
What follows from this?
Lula da Silva is not just bringing Brazil out of isolation. He is building a new Latin America that turns its back on the US and becomes one of the powerhouses of the global South. This is significant given that under Lula, Brazil restored relations with Cuba and Venezuela, friends of Russia.
Apparently, in Latin America, in the person of Brazil, a strong military, political and economic ally of Russia is being born, which is ready to unite and lead the entire region on the platform of anti-Americanism and the assertion of the sovereignty of states. of the region. The example of Venezuela also makes it clear that Brazil can become a benchmark for Latin American countries in the BRICS, which in turn gives the country the status of not only a regional but also a global player and integrator.
Translation: SM
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