América del Sur

The abrupt entry of Venezuela to Mercosur

Raúl Zibechi

12/07/2012

Opinión

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When Dilma Rousseff approached José Mujica and Cristina Fernández saying: "I have a political issue to discuss with you", she was on the verge of transmitting a message that would change the course of the summit meeting of Mercosur. One on one, the Brazilian president asked for Uruguay to support the entry of Venezuela to Mercosur, which it had been resisting since the day before due to formalities.

Before travelling to Mendoza, Dilma met with the ex-president Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva in São Paulo. Lula "demanded" that Dilma "put Brazil's political clout on the line in the meeting that would begin in a few hours in Mendoza" to obtain the admission of Venezuela to Mercosur (Noticias Clic, July 3, 2012).

Lula appears as an outstanding strategist and geopolitical leader. In the hands of Celso Amorim, described by the review Foreign Policy in 2009 as "the world’s best foreign minister ", Brazil derailed the WTO Summit in Cancun in 2003, creating the Group of 20-plus headed by Brazil, China, India and South Africa, which blocked the liberalization of global agricultural markets that they saw as prejudicial to the south. In May of 2010 Brazilian diplomacy forged an agreement between Iran, Brazil and Turkey for the exchange of nuclear fuel, with a view to creating a peaceful alternative to the warlike escalation of the US and Israeli pressure against Iran.

In the region, Lula's Brazil was one of the architects of the halting of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), buried at the Mar de Plata summit in November of 2005 and of the endeavours of UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) to block the "civic coup" that the Bolivian right attempted in September of 2008 against Evo Morales. The military alliance with France is one of the principal legacies of the Lula governments from the geopolitical perspective, an alliance that allows Brazil to build conventional and nuclear submarines to defend their oil and establish the only Latin American Military-Industrial-Complex.

Lula was the architect of UNASUR and of CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), which for the first time in the history of Latin America integrates all countries of the region, without the oversight of the United States and Canada, asserting a strong position opposed to the Monroe Doctrine, a position whose maxim could well be "Latin America for Latin Americans." The creation of the South American Defence Council, made up of the twelve armed forces of the region, is coordinating the arms industry among several countries, a move that in the medium term could allow for military autonomy.

The creation of a multipolar world in which Mercosur and UNASUR can assume their proper roles, is an approach that can hardly move forward without clashes with the great powers, and in particular the United States. Along this course, Brazil comes into play at certain moments as a great power, at times with certain imperialist characteristics, but on the ground has shown herself able to discuss issues on a basis of equality, even with neighbours that have a GDP fifty or one hundred times less than hers. In spite of the evident asymmetry, there is a margin of negotiation that the countries of the region have never enjoyed with the powers of the north.

To be sure, the decision taken in Mendoza for the full admission of Venezuela was dubious as to form, even though the parliaments of the three countries had already approved it. Nevertheless, in a period of deep changes such as we are now seeing, with global, regional and local powers jockeying for new positions, formalities count less than content. What is at stake is making sure that the direction taken in 2009 in Honduras does not become the "default setting" to prevent countries and peoples from choosing their own course of action.

In this period, both coups d'état and wars are becoming common currency. If Brazil assumed a hard line against the coup in Honduras, which soon appeared to have clearly been supported by Washington, could there be a different stance with Paraguay, a key country for the military and energy stability of Brazil and the Southern Cone? The admission of Venezuela to MERCOSUR is a message to the White House to the effect that the region does not want to continue to be a backyard.

(Translation: Jordan Bishop, for ALAI).

Raúl Zibechi, an Uruguayan journalist, is a teacher and researcher in the Multiversidad Franciscana of Latin America, and an advisor to a number of social organizations.

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/159514