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By Fabiana Culshaw
On the verge of extinction. This is the risk that hangs over the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), an organization that has long fallen into a real inertia.
Since January 31, 2017, the organization remains steadfast, its member states not having could appoint the secretary general to succeed Colombia's Ernesto Samper (2014-2017). The appointment of the Argentine diplomat José Octavio Bordón did not have the necessary support and since then the direction is unshakeable.
Colombia, in particular, threw oil on fire with the recent statements of its elected President Duque, who said that Unasur "is a sounding board of the Venezuelan dictatorship.
This week has been added the announcement of the President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, that the headquarters of the organization, located north of Quito, will become a center of indigenous higher education. [19659003] "We will have the center" Moreno said in Quito about the current headquarters of Unasur, a futuristic architectural complex that won international awards
. We have to do the process in Unasur to make the building, so that there is the indigenous university, "he reiterated.
Unasur is also questioned in his reason for being, and his supporters, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, have not been able to reverse the situation.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to questions, calling on the "South American conscience" and warning of alleged "pressure by the United States to break regional unity". The President's reaction can be explained by the key role of Venezuela in the creation of Unasur, at the request of the late Hugo Chávez, but that with the humanitarian crisis, the foundation that he exerted formerly in the organization has been weakened.
Bolivian President Evo Morales said he would try to reach consensus with his peers for the return of the six countries mentioned.
Alerts and Risks
Since Unasur is generally considered a highly ideologized institution, opinions about its effectiveness are highly divided.
There are those who interpret the transitional withdrawal of the six countries as an announcement of the death of Unasur, while others see the event as an alert that could speed up the solutions.
For the moment, the critical countries have not said that they will leave UNASUR and, although they will maintain their financial contribution to the agency, some of them have warned that the disbursement represents a tax burden.
"We can not inject this money into an institution that does not work," said Chilean Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero, whose country contributes $ 800,000 a year to the organization .
Historical Decline
As the so-called "progressive" governments lost power in the region – with the departure of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from the presidency in Brazil, the death of Chávez After the The end of Rafael Correo's term in Ecuador and the end of the Kirchnerist cycle in Argentina, Unasur has lost the relevance it had at its inception.
"This organization had its best time before it came into effect." Its constitutive agreement in 2011, which is a big contradiction, at the time, it was presented as an exercise in independence of South America against the United States, but the current governments of the region are more pragmatic and do not want to give back to the United States, including many of the left, "said Michele's Observator Giovanna, internationalist and professor at the Central University of Venezuela.
The analyst believes that Unasur has been sped up in the call for debate and has reacted to some political problems, such as the coup attempt in Ecuador in 2010 and the overthrow of the president Fernando Lugo in Paraguay in 2012. But, With the exception of these exceptions, she has not brought any concrete solutions to the region, even in the face of poverty or social inequality that has not occurred. she had invested so much in her beginnings. "It does not have the structure or mechanisms necessary for that," he observed.
De Michele refers to the fact that the Bank of the South ended up being a "chimera" and that several megaprojects, such as the interoceanic highway, the South American energy ring, the Colombian binational gas pipeline Venezuelan and even the creation of a common currency in the region, they came to nothing.
For his part, Fabio Sánchez, director of research and professor of the School of Politics and International Relations of Sergio Arboleda University, Colombia, refers to the achievements of the body while acknowledging the problems he faces. 19659003] According to him, Unasur represents an advanced phase of the process of "South Americanization" promoted historically by Brazil and, despite its difficulties, it has progressed on certain fronts.
Among his achievements, Sánchez notes that the organization acted before serious problems, such as the secessionist crisis in Bolivia, or the Fenix operation (incursion of Colombia into Ecuadorian territory) in 2008. It also values the inauguration of the South American School of Defense (Esude), the Technical Support Unit and the Gabriel García Márquez Library. However, it is obvious that this list is not sufficient for a large part of the member countries, which led to its current crisis.
There is a correlation between the decline of Unasur and the arrival of Luis Almagro at the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS). "His firm democratic stance has revitalized the OAS and other bodies, like Unasur, have been relegated, and the region is likely to continue on this path," De Michele said.
The regional blocks that work best today are not those political agreement like Unasur, but those of commercial and economic integration, especially the Pacific Alliance. Mercosur has slowed down, but it manages to recover the lost space of its possible strategic alliance with the European Union. Free trade agreements also complemented the mechanisms of integration
Against the clock
If Unasur were to disappear, it would be a virtually sui generis event in the region. Generally, weakened organizations are transformed into other entities that reflect the values of their origins and redefine their bases with more vigor or new leaders.
In this case, we should ask ourselves if the conditions are conducive to any reformulation. d & # 39; Unasur. As far as you can see, that does not seem to be the case. Without going further, the two largest companies in the region, Brazil and Argentina – with respectively Michel Temer and Mauricio Macri – are betting on a change in the roadmap
"Despite the negative reviews, Unasur There is still a lot of work to be done in order to contribute to the union of South America, it would be worth preserving or redefining it, "Sánchez said.
What exists is the unanimity in the observation of the limbs in which the body fell and in which no response will appear in the coming weeks, their continuity will be further compromised.
There is no doubt that the "better late than never" is more than risky in this case. Every day counts.
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