South America Is Back, and Venezuela Is Helping Lead the Way

By William Serafino – Jun 4, 2023

The recent summit of South American presidents in Brasilia, convened by President Lula Da Silva, was a practical reflection of the political-electoral shift towards the progressive camp in the region. Venezuela has been a key player in this process.

Although this change of geopolitical orbit has yet to guarantee possibility in the medium term, it has already produced an image in the Brazilian capital signaling a change in the times.

On a symbolic level, the summit also represents the official end to a cycle of fragmentation, bitter political dispute, and planned attempts to destroy the intergovernmental platforms that emerged during the first years of the 21st century as an alternative to the monopoly of US “Pan-Americanism.”

The result of that process was a considerable setback for the institutional dynamics of regional integration at the hands of the liberal-conservative power bloc that took over a significant number of the governments in the last decade. On top of that rubble, the leaders now are working to reposition the region on the geopolitical chessboard. This comes at a moment when the power struggle between declining and emerging powers is becoming more acute, and the South American continent finds itself in a moment of major definitions of its geostrategic destiny.

President Maduro: South America Advances Towards New Stage of Unity in Diversity

The timing of the diplomatic meeting that took place at the Itamaraty Palace is grim: the last UNASUR summit was held in 2014. It has been ten years in which international geopolitics has undergone changes in its rhythms, balances of power and economic integration schemes, changes in which the region has not played a representative role – until yesterday.

The meeting calls for optimism with reservations. A road map was defined with specific times to strengthen integration mechanisms and UNASUR. Founded in 2008, USNASUR enjoyed enormous prestige and influence during its first years. Postponed for years, UNASUR now returns as a platform making efforts for a unified region with its own voice, allowing for the strengthening of its members through economic and financial cooperation.

Although the meeting gives the impression that South America has shaken off the image of irrelevance that weighed on it for years, the course of events evolves along a trend of fragility, instability, and disagreement. President Gustavo Petro, who announced Colombia’s return to UNASUR at the summit, today faces the foreshadowing of a coup scenario after the breakup of his government coalition. The prognosis as to whether he will come out of this battle on his feet is still reserved.

Argentina, one of the key poles of the institution due to its economic and symbolic weight, faces a presidential electoral process at the end of this year, where an unfavorable result for Peronism could delay the progress of integration. On the other hand, the institutional crisis in Peru seems far from being resolved, and it does not seem that President Gabriel Boric and President Luis Lacalle Pou are going to commit themselves to a renewed push for integration, beyond the strictly institutional, in view of their statements against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during the summit.

The Venezuelan president participated in the summit and, as expected, was the center of attention. The president’s presence reconfirmed that the questioning of his legitimacy as president is a thing of the past and that his reinsertion in the regional chessboard is a fait accompli. Due to the objective weight of Lula’s leadership and the economic and geopolitical weight of Brazil, this new milestone of normalization of Maduro’s presence in important international forums had a significant symbolic addition. Madurao was received with honors in the same country that during the government of Jair Bolsonaro, mobilized important political and diplomatic efforts to isolate the Venezuelan leader.

Lula Promotes South American Unity at Brasilia Summit

The summit in Brasilia was a definitive milestone signaling the decay of the narrative alleging the illegitimacy of his mandate won at the polls in 2018. If his participation in the CELAC summit in Mexico City in 2021 was the first chapter of the recovery of his international recognition, the trip to Egypt for the COP27 at the end of last year would be the intermediate one, and the meeting in Brasilia being the denouement of the narrative driven mainly by Washington.

The revitalization of regional integration through UNASUR must necessarily include Venezuela, due to its symbolic and economic weight and its political stability, which contrasts with other countries in the region.

Instability has become the norm in the southern part of the continent. The Brazil-Caracas-Bogotá-La Paz axis may be impacted by events in Colombia favorable to Petro, while the uncertainty of Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile remains. Meanwhile, South America positions itself with a renewed agenda to revive the decisive geopolitical role it is called to play.