As expected, last week’s 5th Latin America and the Caribbean-European Union Summit in Lima, Peru, produced the usual rhetoric-filled declaration, built around the well-meaning theme of ‘Addressing Our Peoples’ Priorities Together,’and the so-called Lima Agenda aimed at deepening bi-regional cooperation to deal with challenges in two broad areas: poverty eradication, inequity and exclusion; and sustainable development, environment, climate change and energy.
Also, as anticipated, there was not much progress on the trade front, notwithstanding the stated objective of EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to inject new life into trade negotiations with MERCOSUR and the Andean Community.
Yes, there was language in the dclaration about “taking into account the asymmetries among countries” and consolidating bi-regional trade to promote growth and sustainable development. But disagreements between the EU and MERCOSUR about the opening up of the EU market continue to be a hindrance to a deal with the Southern Cone and disagreements within the Andean Community have effectively stymied negotiations with the EU.
Much to the chagrin of fellow Andean leaders, Alan García of Peru and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, President Evo Morales of Bolivia publicly torpedoed the free trade agenda by voicing the opposition of Bolivia and Ecuador – and indeed, of Latin America’s populist left – to rushing towards free trade with the EU, citing the preference instead for “fair trade,” which attends to the needs of the region’s poor. If anything, and contrary to the wishes of Colombia, Peru and the EU, Bolivia and Ecuador would prefer a two-speed negotiation, hence the reference to “asymmetries among countries.”
It remains to be seen how exactly these disagreements will be resolved, but the situation is certainly not helped by utterances such as those emanating from President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, who, although absent from the summit, weighed in from Managua with his own fulminations against free trade and his solid support of Mr Chávez’s Bolivarian Alternative (ALBA), seemingly oblivious to his own contradictory position as a member of the free trade agreement between Central America and the Dominican Republic on the one hand and the USA on the other (DR-CAFTA).
There was therefore a lot of the type of public politicking that has come to be expected at summits in Latin America, in addition to the quiet diplomacy that goes on behind the scenes in pre-arranged and even spontaneous bilateral encounters.
In this respect, most eyes in Lima were on Mr Uribe and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa, following their falling out over Colombia’s invasion of Ecuadorian territory to wipe out a FARC guerrilla group. However, there was no sign of the tension between the two abating in spite of feverish diplomatic negotiations between the foreign ministries of the two countries.
Indeed, relations between the two men were very much on the cool side in Lima although the temperature was raised considerably by some heated language from Mr Correa, who accused the Colombian leader of undermining efforts aimed at regional integration via an unjust and irresponsible campaign of calumny against Ecuador. This was in the context of the statement by Interpol on the eve of the summit that there had been no altering of the files on the computers found in the belongings of slain guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes, which for the Colombians proved that the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela were providing an unacceptable level of support to the FARC.
And while there had been speculation that Mr Chávez might not attend the summit because of his spat with Angela Merkel of Germany and even because of the Interpol report, it was the Venezuelan President himself who, true to his mercurial character, was to spring the biggest surprise of the event by meeting in private with the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
This was the first meeting between the two leaders since King Juan Carlos’s famous rebuke – “Why don’t you shut up?” – at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, last November, which had provoked a diplomatic row between Venezuela and Spain and which had threatened economic relations between the two countries.
It was felt at the time, in spite of Mr Chávez’s blustering threats, that the quantum and strategic importance of Spanish investments in Venezuela would ensure that the row would blow over. Thus, after the reportedly “cordial” meeting, Mr Zapatero stated that it was a first step towards the normalization of relations between Spain and Venezuela and Mr Chávez called the encounter “very constructive.”
Mr Chávez even magnanimously declared that he had put the incident with the Spanish monarch behind him in the interest of “the excellent bilateral relations which we have always had with the Spanish Government… and with the Head of State, who is King Juan Carlos” and said that he had asked Mr Zapatero to pass on his greetings to the King because, as he put it, “we are old friends.”
It is probably better not to comment on the comedic talents of the Venezuelan President at this juncture, but rather celebrate the fact that, at least in this particular case, good sense seems to have finally prevailed.
