Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was yesterday scheduled to host fellow South American leaders for a “retreat” aimed at strengthening ties in a region where left-wing governments are newly back in style.
Eleven of the continent’s 12 heads of state are due to attend the summit in Brasilia — the first of its kind in nearly a decade — with only Peruvian President Dina Boluarte expected to miss it.
Veteran leftist Da Silva started things on Monday by meeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and hailing the “historic” restoration of a relationship that was severed under his predecessor, far-right former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Brazil had cut diplomatic ties with Maduro’s government under Bolsonaro, who labeled the socialist leader a “dictator.”
“This is the start of Maduro’s return, and [yesterday’s] meeting will be the return of South American integration,” Da Silva told a news conference, after greeting his Venezuelan counterpart at the presidential palace with a hug and a back-slap.
Da Silva, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, is a self-declared fan of international cooperation and “regional integration,” which featured prominently in his first presidency, and is keen to reboot stalled South American ties.
This is the first summit of regional leaders since 2014 in Quito, Ecuador, at a gathering of the Union of South American Nations, a continental bloc launched in 2008 by Da Silva and late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
That was the moment of Latin America’s so-called “pink tide,” when a wave of left-wing governments led the region.
Now, some political analysts are talking of a “new pink tide” in South America, with the recent election of Da Silva, Chilean President Gabriel Boric and Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Da Silva wants to get the region cooperating again.
His government has touted projects such as a “Bi-Oceanic Corridor,” a transportation artery to enable countries to ship goods from one side of the continent to the other overland instead of by sea.
The summit would be a small, “more relaxed” gathering, with only the leaders, their foreign ministers and select advisers in the room, a Brazilian diplomatic source said.
“Groundbreaking visions” for South America’s future are unlikely to emerge from the summit, political scientist Oliver Stuenkel said.
However, “the meeting itself is good news,” he wrote in Americas Quarterly.
“Even a basic dialogue between heads of state is genuine progress after Brazil largely retreated from its neighborhood during the Bolsonaro years,” he said.
Since Da Silva defeated Bolsonaro in a divisive election to return to office in January, he has been overhauling Brazil’s foreign policy, vowing to seek friendly relations across the board and cultivating closer ties with partners as disparate as China and the US.
However, he has drawn attacks from opponents for being overly cozy with Russia, China and Latin American leftists such as Maduro and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who are accused of human rights violations.
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