UNASUR Meeting IN ECUADOR :
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner travelled to the city of Quito, Ecuador, last Sunday to participate in the Summit of Chiefs of State of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur for its Spanish initials) and in the inauguration of a new term of office of fellow President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa.
The President shall be accompanied by Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana and other members of her Cabinet. The III Ordinary Unasur Meeting (block made up of Argentina Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, Peru and Surinam) is to take place at the hall of the Convent of San Agustín.
This time, the meeting will be focused on the position of the countries regarding the setting up of US military bases in Colombia and the current situation in Honduras, just over a month after the coup d' etat that overturned Manuel Zelaya. In addition to this and within the framework of the summit, Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet shall hand over the temporary presidency of Unasur to fellow President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa.
The only was Alvaro Uribe, who has announced he will not be attending the Quito summit, after the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, requested Bachelet to formally call for the Defense Council of the block to meet in order to discuss the military agreement which is currently being negotiated between Washington and Bogotá, as stated by the Colombian Foreign Office.
Yesterday Uribe ended in Brazil a tour around South America which included Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, countries where he gave details of the scope of the measure and due to which he received more rejections and uneasy feelings than acceptance to the initiative.
During his stay in Buenos Aires, Cristina explained to the Colombian President that it was necessary to "decrease the conflict in the region" and that "the setting up of the military bases did not work towards that objective", according to what was expressed by official sources after the meeting.
In addition to participating in the Unasur meeting, Cristina shall attend on Monday to the Second Inauguration of Rafael Correa, who was re elected until 2013 at the general elections held last April. The ceremony shall coincide with the festivities for the Independence Day of Ecuador, a country entering its bi - centenary this year
Cristina proposes meeting with Uribe in Buenos Aires
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner proposed a meeting with Alvaro Uribe to discuss the installation of American military bases in Colombia. She did so during the UNASUR summit, in Ecuador.
As it came up during the summit, the meeting with the Colombian president could take place in Buenos Aires.
Cristina said that: “We have imported the economic crisis, swine flu, we now import a belligerent situation,” said the head of state, after agreeing with the current president of the block of South American nations, Ecuadorian Rafael Correa, to call a meeting with leaders of the zone to moderate the political crisis generated by Colombia.
The proposal emerged after Hugo Chávez said in his address to the presidents that “winds of war began to blow” in the region and that Venezuela “is preparing for an eventual military confrontation.
Earlier, Rafael Correa had lamented the installation of US military bases in Colombia and said it was “a provocation”.
Moreover, President Inacio “Lula” Da Silva stressed the importance of dialogue in regard to the differences over the issue and stressed the need to call the president of the United States, Barack Obama for a meeting with presidents of the UNASUR block.
Lula said that the UNASUR is meaningless if it will become a “club of friends surrounded by enemies.”
Lula calls for peace in the face of tensions with ColombiaBrazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Monday for peace in South America at a time when tensions are rife over Colombia's plans to allow the United States use of seven military bases in its territory.
"The more peace we have, the more we will be able to give our peoples what they need," Lula said in Quito.
He appeared to take distance from more radical South American leaders, particularly Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Earlier, Chavez had claimed that "war winds are starting to blow" in the region.
"Venezuela feels threatened, I don't know if Ecuador does, but that country was bombed recently," Chavez said at the summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was not in attendance. His country has not had diplomatic ties with host Ecuador for over a year, following a cross-border Colombian Army raid that targeted a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Ecuadorian soil.
Bogota is considering granting the US military increased access to bases within Colombia. The official reason is the fight against drug trafficking, which fuels the activities of leftist Colombian rebels who have been fighting the state for more than 40 years.
Most South American countries, including Brazil and Argentina, have expressed their displeasure with the plan. However, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner also distanced herself from Chavez's positions Monday in Quito.
Fernandez de Kirchner demanded that "shrillness" be avoided in this issue and that "problems be approached in an intelligent fashion."
"An unprecedented and unacceptable state of belligerence is being created in the region," she complained.
Fernandez de Kirchner asked that a new gathering of Unasur "necessarily" include Uribe, and offered to host such a meeting in Buenos Aires.
"We have to reach an agreement about the future of Unasur, since if there is no sincerity and trust among its members it will not be an institution for integration but a friends' club surrounded by enemies," Lula said in response to Chavez's words.
At this summit, Ecuador took over the rotating presidency of Unasur, an organization that was formally set up in May 2008 and brings together the 12 countries in South America.
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