Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

LATIN AMERICA: Chavez Noisily Assumes Leadership of Andean Community

Ramiro Escobar

LIMA, Jul 19 2005 (IPS) - "Integration should be independent of any single power," Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez remarked to IPS in the corridors of the seat of government in the Peruvian capital, after declaring that the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a U.S.-driven initiative, was dead.

In a brief interview in the midst of a tumultuous crowd of security agents, after he assumed the rotating presidency of the Andean Community trade bloc, Chávez said that his proposal to create a Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) was more feasible than the FTAA (known as ALCA in Spanish).

The left-leaning Venezuelan leader had told the Andean Community summit Monday that what the bloc’s member countries needed was "joint social action" to ensure that the resolutions arising from similar meetings of presidents did not merely remain on paper and had an actual impact on people’s lives.

A comment by Chávez in his lengthy address to the summit just after he assumed the leadership of the Andean bloc – made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela – sparked a minor spat with Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Camilo Reyes.

Chávez said Telesur, a new pan-Latin American TV channel based in Venezuela, is independent and open-minded, and to illustrate he pointed to the appearance of the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, Manuel Marulanda, alias "Tirofijo" or "Sureshot", in a promotional video broadcast by the station.

His statement triggered an angry reaction from Reyes, who said the image of Marulanda was a painful one for Colombians.

Chávez defended the insurgent leader’s brief appearance in the promotional trailer "in the name of freedom of expression," and said the deputy minister’s reaction was "absurd."

But he toned down his words when asked about the incident by IPS, saying "the roads to integration are many, and there are different points of view."

Venezuela presented the largest number of proposals at the summit that culminated in the signing of a final document titled "Democracy, Development and Social Cohesion", which focuses on the issues of foreign policy, democratic governance, the fight against drugs, integration and development.

The summit was attended by Chávez, presidents Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Alfredo Palacio of Ecuador, and host Alejandro Toledo, while the Bolivian government was represented by Foreign Minister Armando Loayza.

Delegates of South America’s largest trade bloc, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), also took part in a portion of Monday’s summit.

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the countries that make up Mercosur, became associate members of the Andean Community on Jul. 7.

With respect to the question of "physical integration," the Chávez administration presented a proposal to create Petroandina, a corporation of the bloc’s oil firms. "It is not a merger of companies, but a strategic alliance," the president explained.

Caracas is also pushing for the creation of Petrosur, an alliance with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and Petrocaribe, an association with Caribbean island nations, as part of his efforts to strengthen the region’s energy independence.

Chávez stated that his oil integration initiatives are aimed at putting Venezuela’s oil wealth "at the disposal of South America and the Caribbean."

Just four days earlier, the phrase "strategic alliance" was used by European Union Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner on a visit to Lima. She was referring to the negotiations between the European bloc and the Andean Community and Mercosur.

Hugo Cabieses, an economist who forms part of the Peruvian Forum of International Relations, commented to IPS that Ferrero-Waldner’s presence in Peru just before the summit was unusual and that it indicated that the EU had a special interest in reaching agreements with the region, which could irritate Washington.

"The Americans could feel that (the EU) is butting into their backyard," said Cabieses.

The EU’s interest, added to the fact that Chávez – who has a tense relationship with Washington – is now the temporary president of the Andean Community, makes for a possibly turbulent coming year.

Meanwhile, the issue of drug trafficking, a central focus of the summit, is another example of how new approaches to old problems are beginning to emerge.

This time around, the bloc’s leaders agreed that the drug trade must be fought in a "sustainable" manner that is not just based on police and military crackdowns and programmes for the substitution of illegal crops.

Peruvian Foreign Minister Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros said efforts are needed to "boost the competitiveness of agriculture" to help pull areas affected by the drug trade out of social exclusion, as part of a "balanced, integral and sustainable" fight against drugs.

Notably, the leaders also incorporated the expression "shared responsibility," a concept that has been fully accepted by the EU in its negotiations with the Andean nations but not by the United States in the bloc’s numerous yet fruitless talks with Washington on the implementation of plans aimed at eradicating drug trafficking.

Trade in agriculture is the main hurdle in talks for a free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, a new round of which just began in Miami.

Alejandro Deustua, an international affairs analyst who spoke to IPS, said the negotiations for a free trade accord between the United States and just three of the Andean Community members "distorts" the bloc’s efforts towards integration by complicating a number of trade agreements within the bloc.

 
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