UNASUR…
From Cochabamba to
IT WOULD BE impetuous for me to say that the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) is coming to Guyana. Guyana already is a matured member within UNASUR, going way back to the days of  the Cuzco and Ayacucho Declarations of 2004 and the Cochabamba Declaration in 2006. And the Jagdeo Administration was a significant player in UNASUR’s embryonic stages right through to its maturation point today, where it is now in a state of readiness for social, political, and economic take-off. This was no mean feat.

And, indeed, Guyana’s international stature and its place on the international stage are fully acknowledged and secured as President Bharrat Jagdeo takes on the crownship of UNASUR. The handing over of the ‘integration’ baton to Jagdeo and the people of Guyana will remain etched in the minds of Guyanese for eternity; for this imminent UNASUR confab is about deepening South American integration, as never witnessed before in South American history.

And Jagdeo’s UNASUR will be an education for those petty politicos in Guyana, and those arduously kidding themselves daily vis-a-vis their infantile political commentaries and their amateurish street rendezvous which they naively label as protests, that perchance they may still have time to pass their political exams. However, today is not for the petty politicos. UNASUR owns and controls the monopoly for today’s Perspective.

South American leaders are giving a clear nix to the Washington Consensus vis-à-vis these countervailing forces: the South American Community of Nations (SACN) which has now become UNASUR; Venezuela’s Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) as a counter to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA); and the ever-present Brazil and Argentina’s Buenos Aires Consensus with a 22-point plan for South American integration. In addition, center-left democracies in South America have become a logistical nightmare for the Washington Consensus. What is new today in the new political fabric emerging in South America is that these center-left democracies have a strong nexus with center-left social movements; a situation unrelated to the times of yore.

Just that we should know that the Washington Consensus, a product of the Cold War, persists in imperialist endeavors to ruin multilateralism and boost insensitive inequalities within and among developing vulnerable sovereign states, including small economies. The Washington Consensus is not a friend to the developing world; it concerns itself with shoring up its own interests. And we must know that globalization is nothing more than an imperialist tool for the developed world.

Some time ago, I said this: “A little history of South American hunger for integration is yelling for exposition.” Well, let us do it. What follows now are a little history I presented in an earlier Perspective.

In many ways, Bolivar is the architect of South American integration, independence and solidarity; through military victories over the Spanish, he secured independence for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.

He was born on July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela; the death of his parents while still a child pushed Bolivar to have a sojourn in Europe at an early age. Bolivar enlisted with a patriotic group on his return to Venezuela and captured Caracas from the Spanish in 1810; then declared independence from Spain; Caracas eventually was recaptured by the Spanish. But in 1813, Bolivar restored Caracas into local hands.

The geopolitical significance of Caracas attracted long and hard battles between the Spaniards and Bolivar’s patriot group; the Spanish crushed Bolivar’s patriot group and caused Bolivar to retreat into New Granada (now Colombia).

But Bolivar took command of Bogota in 1814. However, inadequate supplies of men and materials brought several defeats; and Bolivar fled to Jamaica; he then took refuge in Haiti; and with considerable help from Toussaint L’ Overture, returned to Venezuela and captured Angostra (now Ciudad Bolivar).

In 1819, Bolivar recaptured Colombia at the battle of Boyar; Bolivar then returned to Angostra and set up the republic of Colombia (now independent sovereign states: Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela). In 1824, Bolivar defeated the Spanish at Ayacucho in Peru; and then renamed upper Peru ‘Bolivia’ in 1825. Bolivar’s history is a history of integration.

And the history of integration rolls on, now with a permanent form, UNASUR. UNASUR symbolizes a new dawn and a new day for South American integration; especially when you mull the military dictatorships of Latin America in the final stages of the 20th century, the lost decade of the 1980s, the early stages of a return to democracy and integration in the 1990s, and their consolidation in the early phase of the 21st century. And the UNASUR and South American integration stop in Guyana really is a historic progression from Cochabamba to Georgetown.
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