At a summit in Mexico yesterday, representatives from 33 Latin American countries agreed to form an alliance, the chief characteristic of which is that it will exclude the United States and Canada.
For Brazil’s Folha newspaper, columnist Clovis Rossi writes of the plan’s likelihood of success, and the questions Latin American leaders ought to be asking themselves as they move ahead.
For Folha, Clovis Rossi writes in part:
Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be a subcontinent of copious rhetoric and of a thousand attempts at integration with little union. Nothing new indeed: in his speech, Mexican President Calderon noted that integration “is the natural vocation of our people and our natural aspiration since the beginnings of our independent nations.” Doing the math: this year begins the commemoration of 200 years of independence for the former Spanish colonies in the Americas. In other words, Latin American leaders have sung the same song for 200 years. Yet they never get anywhere except to another summit.
The biggest difficulty lies in defining what role the 33 intend for the United States, if it’s that of enemy (sought by the Bolivians and led by Venezuela) or of a partners that respects and doesn’t subjugate the region, as is preferred by Brazil, among others.
One cannot, as a matter of geographic fate, claim that the United States (and Canada) aren’t part of the Americas. One cannot, as a matter of geopolitical and economic fate, claim that the United States doesn’t exert tremendous influence on the subcontinent. Therefore, we must first of all define the terms on which Latin America and the Caribbean intend to exercise their unity: against the United States or alongside it.
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