INTEGRATION-SOUTH AMERICA: Zone of Peace, Democracy and Free Trade

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

BRASILIA, Sep 2 2000 (IPS) - The South American Summit of presidents concluded Friday in Brazil’s capital with the pledge to consolidate efforts for the region’s political and economic integration, with emphasis on peace, democracy and free trade, but with few concrete measures to lead the way.

The summit was limited to South American countries “because we are neighbours with problems in common,” explained the meeting’s host and promoter, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso as he summarised the two-day event.

“South America is one of our basic identities,” and is the space in which we can promote physical integration of our nations, with roads, waterways and gas pipelines, which will reinforce ties between us and strengthen our economies, he said.

Though the 12 presidents at the summit did not establish a regular series of meetings, other summits will be held when the governments of the continent consider them necessary, Cardoso explained.

“Variable geometry” is the term he employed to justify the expansion and coexistence of various regional forums, such as the Rio Group of Latin American political consolidation, and other arenas of continental association and negotiation.

South America will be a zone of peace, democracy, free trade and broad co-operation in the fight against the drug trade, affirmed the continent’s 12 presidents in the document known as the Brasilia Communiqué.

This final declaration of the two-day summit underscores the decision to create a South American “expanded economic space,” based on the principle of open regionalism and strengthening the continent for future hemispheric and global negotiations.

As of Friday, the state of law and full respect for the democratic regime are “requirements for participation in future South American conferences,” resolved the presidents, but rejected establishing sanctions for those who might violate the rules of democracy.

This was the decision resulting from the proposal to adopt a “democratic clause,” like the one governing the Southern Common Market (Mercosur – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), though this four-country bloc has the authority to expel a violating nation.

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos acknowledged that the requirements of a democratic regime are variable and tend to grow. In his country, he pointed out, there was a time when simply establishing the right of habeas corpus was a major accomplishment.

Today, Lagos added, free elections are not enough. South American countries must improve the conditions for popular participation and ensure that all candidates have equal conditions in electoral campaigns.

Cardoso, meanwhile, stressed that criticisms between the region’s governments should be frank and open, taking advantage of the opportunity to say Peru must re-establish the independence of its Judiciary.

Potential threats to South America’s democracies are to be studied by the integration forums already existing in the region, according to the Brasilia Communiqué.

“Representational democracy is the basis of legitimacy for political systems and an essential requirement for the peace, stability and development of the region,” says the document.

But the text also says it is necessary to stimulate the participation of citizens and civil organisations in national decisions and to strengthen parties and improve electoral processes.

The more explicit proposals for “participatory democracy” presented by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez were not included in the final declaration. He stressed that the model his government has developed for Venezuela is valid for the entire region.

The presidents acknowledged, however, that “poverty and marginalisation threaten the region’s institutional stability,” and called for greater attention to the poorest sectors of the population in order to reduce social inequalities.

The Communiqué includes the creation of a South American Peace Zone, extending commitments already assumed by Mercosur and associate members Bolivia and Chile, and by the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), to all of the nations of the continent. It will be up to the region’s foreign ministers to promote the necessary measures to execute this decision.

Mercosur and CAN resolve to implement free trade between the two blocs before January 2002, says the document, “a decisive force” in establishing the South American economic zone.

Support for the integration process for hemispheric trade, known as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), planned for 2005, was amended by the demand for effective access of South American exports to the international markets.

The text does not specifically mention the trade protectionism of the United States, though Brazil’s President Fernando Henrique Cardoso had sharply criticised the practice in the course of the summit.

In this sense, the South American presidents called for balanced negotiations in the creation of the FTAA, pointing to the differences in the levels of development and sizes of the economies involved.

As far as the fight against drug trafficking, the region’s heads of state agreed to expand co-operation in the areas of intelligence, police actions, fighting contraband and targeting the sources of the drugs, including the standardisation of a list of controlled substances.

Money laundering of profits coming from illicit activities, an issue already debated by financial sector authorities, transcends South America’s borders, involving the whole world, agreed the leaders.

The fight against money laundering requires negotiations with countries of greater financial power, such as the United States and the members of the European Union, Cardoso pointed out.

The South American Summit’s final declaration stressed that the responsibility in combating the drug trade must be shared by the producer, transit and consumer nations. Equal emphasis must be placed on reducing supply and demand and on international co- operation, according to the text.

The idea of reinforcing the “South American identity” is evident in the Communiqué as it emphasises that the “cohesion of South America” benefits broader regional processes because “it strengthens and complements the bilateral and multilateral ties between other nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Mercosur proposed a “political dialogue” between the 12 countries, to be held in the near future in Bolivia, which offered to host the event.

The development of an integration infrastructure is to be encouraged through an Action Plan drafted by the Inter-American Development Bank, with contributions from the Andean Development Corporation, to drive projects already underway and to establish others, based on a regional vision.

The presidents meeting in Brasilia stressed the importance of information technology in development efforts and approved the creation of a South American Fund to stimulate scientific and technological co-operation throughout the continent.

Cardoso announced that Brazil would contribute five million dollars to this fund.

The South American Summit gave its support to the peace process in Colombia, which has been caught up in a decades-long civil war, but the Communiqué does not mention the new anti-drug plan that President Andrés Pastrana will soon launch with 1.3 billion dollars in United States aid.

At issue is Pastrana’s ‘Plan Colombia,’ the most polemical matter heard during the parallel discussions at the summit.

The 12 presidents also approved a motion calling for negotiations for a peaceful and lasting solution to the “colonial situation of the Malvinas Islands,” which Great Britain calls the Falkland Islands, and which are claimed by Argentina.