MERCOSUR: Crisis Strikes Politics and Integration Model

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 17 2002 (IPS) - Political instability in Paraguay claimed two lives during street protests Monday, dramatising one side of the crisis of Mercosur (Southern Common Market), giving it a political nuance and altering its route towards integration.

Paraguay’s President Luis González Macchi put an early end Wednesday to the five-day state of emergency he had declared on Monday, but social chaos continued in the context of a wave of protests that started in June, with demonstrations against the government’s plans to privatise state enterprises.

Opposition groups are demanding the resignation of González Macchi, accused of numerous acts of corruption, and they question the legitimacy of his government, which was not elected but was named by Parliament in March 1999 after street protests prompted the resignation of Raúl Cubas.

On top of this are the uncertainties surrounding the presidential elections slated for October in Brazil and for March in Argentina. In both cases there is a good chance that opposition parties, which seek changes in Mercosur, will be victorious.

The creation and growth of the block in the 1990s was “used by the governments” of the member countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — to justify and promote the opening of their economies to foreign trade, Ana Stuart, of the University of Sao Paulo’s international relations research unit, told IPS.

The clearest example of this phenomenon is Brazil, where President Fernando Collor de Mello (1989-1992) invoked the Mercosur integration process in confronting the strong internal resistance to the so-called “neo-liberal” policies of privatisation and reduction of obstacles to imports and movement of capital.

Collor de Mello put an end to the import substitution model that had protected the national market for several decades.

Regional integration, launched in 1991 with the Treaty of Asunción, was borne out of economics-based criteria, “without common policies for regional development” like those agreed in the 1980s by presidents Raúl Alfonsín, of Argentina, and José Sarney, of Brazil, commented Stuart.

The agreements of the 1980s called for policies focusing on development, strengthening democracy after long periods of military dictatorships, and on social policies, the researcher said.

But the “commercialist” project outlined by the Treaty of Asunción left the trade bloc and its member states at the mercy of the fluctuations in the global market, without providing measures to mitigate their social impacts, said Stuart.

And this is what caused the crises, and demonstrates the failure of the neo-liberal capitalist model, she added.

The electoral processes in the region, including Bolivia — an associate member of Mercosur, as is Chile –, reveal a trend towards change, with a reinforcement of the groups opposed to the governments predominant in the last decade, according to the expert.

If those opposition forces win, it should lead to a renewal of the notion of integration as “an instrument of regional development”, with common public polices, institutions to formulate and apply them, more influential parliaments and the participation of social movements, said Stuart.

The incidents Monday in Paraguay served as a reminder that the members of Mercosur “are still in the phase of democratic consolidation,” Sonia Camargo, an international relations expert at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, told IPS.

Paraguay is the weakest link in the region and was never able to resolve its instability problems after the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), but the other members of Mercosur also suffered prolonged military dictatorships until the mid- 1980s, said Camargo.

Political cohesion is considered essential for the integration of the bloc’s four countries, which adopted a “democracy clause” in 1998 that would eject any country from Mercosur in which an illegitimate government takes power.

The economic crises, which spread poverty to more than half the population in the cases of Argentina and Paraguay, create explosive situations, but that does not mean that anti-democratic means would provide a way out, commented Camargo.

Argentina has suffered four consecutive years of recession, but the replacement of three presidents since December followed constitutional rules, and there is little threat of a coup d’état like those that caused the “traumatic experience of military governments, which can even be blamed for the origins of the current crisis,” she said.

The harm caused by the military regimes that predominated in Latin America until the 1980s has reduced the risk of new coups or of governments that would attempt to pass themselves off as “saviours of the fatherland”, stated Camargo.

But the region remains vulnerable to external pressures, in the name of the anti-drug war in Colombia, or of international financial interests that “have no commitment to democracy,” she added.

Within Mercosur, the Paraguayan crisis is of particular concern to Brazil, where former Paraguayan general Lino Oviedo is living in exile. He is blamed for a 1996 coup attempt and is now accused of fomenting and organising protests to destabilise the González Macchi government.

Oviedo is very popular in Paraguay, where he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of masterminding the 1999 assassination of vice-president Luis María Argaña.

The Brazilian government has granted him freedom of movement within that country, but he is not allowed to engage in political activities.

Asunción said it would send Brasilia proof that Oviedo coordinated the demonstrations Monday, creating the possibility of the former general’s expulsion from Brazil.

In addition, the Brazilian television network O Globo broadcast a video showing Oviedo at a political rally in Ponta Pora, a Brazilian city bordering Paraguay.

Brazil’s minister of justice Paulo de Tarso Ribeiro, stated Tuesday night that Oviedo would have to appear in the capital Wednesday to make a statement about his alleged involvement in the protests in Paraguay. The minister assured that the former general would have “ample rights to a defence”.

However, Tarso Ribeiro assured that he would not permit Brazilian territory “to be sued for actions that provoke the destabilisation of our ally nations.”