Summit of the Americas: 21 Years Later

By Carlos Navarro
There were hundreds of representatives of the media present at the first-ever Summit of the Americas in Miami in November 1994. The press corps was very diverse, although the majority of those covering the event represented the big newspapers and broadcast outlets from the U.S. and Latin America. There were a few of us from smaller operations. I was there as a writer for a small university-based news service.  I remember greeting some writers from my former employer Knight-Ridder Financial News at the press tent, and a few feet away the Washington press corps was Dee Dee Meyers, the press secretary for then U.S. President Bill Clinton. 

This gathering of leaders from Latin America was the vehicle for Clinton to promote his proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Clinton, who had just presided over the start of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saw the FTAA as an opportunity to extend the newly enacted U.S.-Mexican-Canadian agreement to thre rest of the hemisphere.

The summit included organized and impromptu press conferences, as well as opportunities for officials to address the press after a session. I attended an informal conference with Clinton advisor David Gergen, as well as a formal address by Guyana's Prime Minister Cheddi Jaggan. Former Colombian President César Gaviria, who was then secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) also spoke to the press informally, as did Dominican President Joaquín  Balaguer.

If bringing the leaders of the hemisphere together for face-to-face meetings was the goal of the summit, then the gathering was a success. There was little discernible conflict, and one reporter from Washington described the gathering as a "lovefest."

The legacy of this first Summit of the Americans was to create the blueprint for the countries of the hemisphere to continue to come together every three years. Those gatherings have been marked by greater internal and external strife, including the emergence of organized protests against globalization and neoliberalism that were absent in Miami.  Internally, the conflict was the tension between the neoliberalism (market-opening measures) promoted broadly by the U.S. and some leaders in the hemisphere and the growing move toward more centralized socialist-oriented governments that placed a higher direct priority on trying to meet the needs of the people of the region. 

Equity, Unity Remain Elusive
Equity. Challenge. Cooperation. Those three words are prominent in the motto of the Seventh Summit of the Americas, which was held in Panama City on April 10-11. Equity has been a challenge ever since the first Summit of the Americas in Miami,

 "Our challenge now is to ensure that, as we implement the Plan of Action and create our first hemispheric free trade area, we put in place measures to ensure that all our peoples share equitably in the benefits,"said Guyana's former Prime Minister Cheddi Jaggan at the initial summit in Florida.

After seven summits (and one special summit in Monterrey), the theme of equity remains elusive.  This was evident in the final declaration presented by the host, Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez. "The theme of the Summit, 'Prosperity with Equity,' has been at the forefront of the agenda and our discussions. We proposed the theme based on our experience and that of all the countries of the Americas. We have grown strongly, but not all the population has benefitted sufficiently from that growth," said the Panamanian president.

 "As the host country we proposed a document setting out Mandates for Action that would address the various core areas that underpin Prosperity with Equity: health, education, energy, the environment, migration, security, citizen participation, and democratic governance," added Varela.

Furthermore, the countries in the hemisphere have not shown the type of unity that the founders envisioned. At these summits, the countries grouped themselves into factions: supporting or opposing the U.S. Here are links to the summits in Santiago (1998), Quebec City (2001),  Mar de la Plata, Argentina  (2005), Trinidad and Tobago (2009), and Colombia (2012).

LADB and the 2015 Summit
Our LADB writers covered the Panama summit from two perspectives. One article addressed an initiative by the three countries that comprise the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) to discuss a regional agreement to promote growth and development, including the Plan for the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle.  El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala have some of the highest crime and poverty rates in the Western Hemisphere, and as a result of these conditions almost one in 10 of their citizens seek to emigrate, mostly to the US," wrote Louisa Reynolds in the the April 30 issue of NotiCen,

Despite the goal to increase regional cooperation, a lack of harmony was also evident at this year's summit. As Andrés Gaudín wrote in the May 1 issue of NotiSur, President Barack Obama had hoped that his country's newly improved relationship with Cuba would be a highlight of the regional gathering. Instead, the U.S. found itself on the defensive because of the executive order that Obama signed on March 9, in which he declared a "national emergency" because "the situation in Venezuela … constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." The president was soundly criticized even by former allies like ex-Colombian President Ernesto Samper, who is now secretary-general of the Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR).

There was no definitive move toward equity and cooperation at the Panama summit. This means that the two issues are likely to come up again at the next summit in 2018, which is scheduled for Lima, Peru.

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Mexico Reconsiders Arraigo; Ecuador to Focus on Energy; Victims Won't Testify Again In Possible Rios Montt Trial in Guatemala

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Venezuela and Colombia Mend Diplomatic, Trade Fences

ISSN: 1060-4189
LADB Article ID: 78449
Category/Department: Region
Date: 2011-12-16
By: Andrés Gaudín

With the signing of a panoply of economic and strategic accords, and without any reference to the serious problems that have plagued bilateral relations in the last three years, Colombia and Venezuela put an end to the last flashpoint of tension in the region.

In late November, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos visited Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and, after just 10 hours of a dialogue prepared discretely by diplomats from both countries, they reached a series of understandings that returned relations to their level in the best moments in the two South American countries' history.  More than merely closing the harmful chapter, the presidents made it clear that no real reasons existed for the estrangement, and they cleared the way for embarking on major undertakings together.  The two presidents also sent strong signals to their people and, in particular, limited the offensive of their respective political opposition, both domestic and foreign. 

Perhaps as important was the message sent to the region, showing that two presidents with conflicting ideological roots can not only dialogue and make good business deals but also take far-reaching steps in favor of integration and peaceful co-existence.

Santos and Chávez proposed resuming the common history that their two countries had built through two centuries of independence and that Colombia's ultraright ex-President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2008) destroyed in only eight years in office, especially after September 2008.

FTA will boost trade ties

The presidents signed various cooperation agreements, including a type of free-trade agreement (FTA) that sets preferential import tariffs on nearly 3,500 products.  The goal is to resume the level of trade in which Colombia always had a trade surplus—in excess of US$7 billion in 2007, only to drop to just over US$500 million after three years of strained relations.

The tariff-preferences agreement replaced the regimen in effect until 2008 for both countries as signatories of the Comunidad Andina de Naciones (CAN) protocols.  Venezuela had withdrawn from CAN in April 2006, although it maintained its rights and obligations until last April.  At that time, the Chávez administration justified its decision saying that it was a form of protest for the FTA that Uribe was negotiating with the US (NotiSur, May 5, 2006, and June 23, 2006).  It is worth noting that, paradoxically, the presidents are re-establishing relations little more than a month after the US Congress, after a four-year delay, gave the green light to the FTA with Bogotá (NotiSur, Dec. 2, 2011).

Those are, essentially, the trade agreements reached.  But other aspects of the meeting were substantially more important.  First, Santos got Venezuela to agree to finance much of the construction of a new power plant some of whose energy will go to Venezuela.  Second, Santos agreed to the sale, within six months, of 50,000 head of cattle that Venezuela will use to improve its stock, as it is doing with cattle imported from Argentina and Uruguay.  Third, the energy agreements will also affect the Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol, which will be assigned two areas for exploitation in the "mature fields" of the Venezuelan border departments of Apure and Zulia.

Pipeline from Venezuela to Colombia's coast worries US

However, of the 11 protocols signed by the presidents, the most far-reaching was the one creating a mixed agency to carry out feasibility studies prior to construction of an oil pipeline of more than 2,000 km that will join Venezuela's Franja del Orinoco—one of the world's major oil reserves—with Colombia's Pacific port of Tumaco. 

The initiative is vital for Venezuela, and Santos knows it.  It would allow Caracas to double its oil exports to China by 2014, from the current 500,000 barrels per day to 1 million bpd.  It has already silenced Chávez's internal opposition and the US government, both of whom see a great danger in the strong trade relations being developed between Venezuela and China.

Both presidents referred to the issue, which so frightens Chávez's domestic and foreign enemies, giving it the importance it deserves.  "A pipeline with these characteristics awakens the interest of the entire world," said Santos.  "How much will we save when we have the pipeline from here, crossing Colombia?" asked Chávez, noting that ships carrying Venezuelan crude to China or Japan now have to travel thousands of kilometers farther, rounding Africa to get to Asia.

New relationship benefits both Santos and Chávez

It could be said that, starting in 2002, relations between Colombia and Venezuela became relations between two people:  Uribe and Chávez, one on the extreme right and the other who calls himself socialist, two personalities as strong as they are unpredictable.  In April 2002, when the electoral campaign that brought Uribe to power ended, an attempted coup took place in Venezuela.  Chávez was thrown out of office and detained for just over a day at a military base.  Uribe celebrated that event (NotiSur, April 19, 2002).  Since then, Chávez has accused him of being a "servant of imperialism," alluding to the US.  In 2006, Chávez withdrew Venezuela from CAN and blamed Uribe, for the same reason.

The verbal confrontation continued escalating and, in March 2008, when Colombian troops entered Ecuadoran territory to pursue and kill Raúl Reyes (NotiSur, March 7, 2008), a leader of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), Chávez (Venezuela) broke off diplomatic relations with Uribe (Colombia). 

From then until the end of his second term in August 2010, Uribe was increasingly critical of Chávez, accusing him of turning Venezuela into a sanctuary for guerrillas and drug traffickers.  Uribe threatened to ask the Organization of American States (OAS) to expel Venezuela, although he never presented any proof or formalized a petition for expulsion (NotiSur, Nov. 20, 2009, and Aug. 6, 2010).  The alleged Colombian-guerrilla camps in Venezuela were never found.  As for drug traffickers, Venezuela has detained them at an average rate of one every two months and has always summarily extradited them to Colombia or the US.  The latest was the great "gift" with which Chávez received Santos on Nov. 28: the announcement of the detention and imminent extradition of Maximiliano "El Valenciano" Bonilla, the most important Colombian drug lord still at large.

With all that background, the crowning of this first meeting with the signing of such important agreements is a political achievement for Chávez and for Santos.  For Chávez, because, by consolidating relations with someone who only 18 months ago appeared on the horizon almost as an enemy, he has sent a strong message to the US and silenced the internal opposition that, for now, reaps more foreign than domestic support.  For Santos, because it allows him to bolster his image as a statesman in a region that looked on him with distrust—when he was defense minister, he was seen as a hawk among hawks—and because it gives him the opportunity to put distance, perhaps definitively, between himself and Uribe and to mend fences with his largest trade partner on the continent.

Santos and Chávez took on an agenda that both defined with the same word: decisive.  "Today security, drug trafficking, trade, territorial sovereignty, culture, and everything that unites us will be discussed, although some want it to separate us, our two peoples," said Santos upon arriving in Caracas. 

The two presidents both said that the meeting was occurring at a "very important" moment—another linguistic similarity, but not just that—for the process of regional integration.  It came four days after the III Cumbre de Américas Latina y el Caribe (CALC) gave way to the birth of the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC), an OAS without the US and Canada.

After the exchange of greetings, Chávez announced the detention of Maximiliano Bonilla, and each word, carefully chosen, seemed to be directed to both the visitor and to the internal opposition—presidential elections take place in October 2012 and politics is the burning issue in Venezuela—and to the US government, which repeats that Venezuela is a sanctuary for Colombian drug traffickers and guerrillas. 

"From no perspective have we allowed nor will we allow the violation of our sovereignty by any group, by any personality, whether from drug trafficking, the guerrillas, or whatever," he said, adding as the punch line, "We will do everything to prevent our territory from being used to conspire against or target Colombia." 

The protocol of diplomatic speeches reserved the last word for Santos, who thanked Venezuela and also responded to Uribe, saying, "My friend Chávez, today we show the world that through collaboration we are going to obtain the best results." 

Four days before Santos' trip to Caracas, Uribe, in receiving in Bogotá a delegation of the Venezuelan opposition Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD), continued trying to interfere in bilateral relations, advising his guests to receive Santos with a statement of repudiation.  He even told them that the Colombian president is "a useful fool for Venezuelan Marxism."