– according to his spokesman, Marcelo Baumbach
BRAZILIAN President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has no plans or intentions of becoming the next Secretary-General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), according to his spokesperson, Marcelo Baumbach, who discarded all speculations related to the issue.
The MercoPress (South Atlantic News Agency) quoted Baumbach as saying that Brazil has no candidate for the UNASUR post left vacant following the death of former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner last October 27.
“As far as we know, no other country has candidates” so it should not be expected that who ever is to occupy Mr. Kirchner’s post is to be named at the UNASUR summit currently ongoing at the  Guyana International Conference Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.
MercoPress reported that President Lula, during a political rally in the state of Sao Paulo, said that after he steps down on January 1st, 2010 and hands the presidential sash to president-elect Dilma Rousseff, he’s only interested in “resting” and “travelling a lot” in Brazil.
“I don’t look like an ambassador. I don’t want to be an ambassador, I just want to be a simple Brazilian citizen, once more and travel a lot across Brazil”, said Lula da Silva who emphasized he “wants to disengage totally from the role of President, since there’s nothing worse than a former President playing as a President”.
Baumbach said that the next UNASUR Secretary-General must be a person capable of consolidating the legacy of Kirchner and have a “great regional political projection”, as well as “good access and dialogue with all heads of state”.
“Former president Kirchner gave the job of UNASUR Secretary-General a great continental dimension”, he said.
Baumbach said that the profile of the person for the job “does not necessarily” have to be a former President or a former foreign affairs minister, but “must have an excellent relation with all Presidents”.
The Brazilian President spokesperson anticipated that the UNASUR Summit in Guyana could consider the inclusion of a “democratic clause” to the UNASUR Charter.
“The initiative was born following the Ecuadorean crisis at the end of September when police forces mutinied and attacked President Rafael Correa,” he is quoted by MercoPress as saying.
“There is a protocol proposal on the issue that is being negotiated and should be ready to be adopted at Georgetown”, said Baumbach.
According to the clause, any country that illegitimately alters constitutional rule will be automatically suspended from UNASUR.
Other issues are the possible creation of Human Rights Council and measures to support and strengthen the institutional framework of the organization.
On Friday, during the Summit, Ecuador will be handing Guyana the presidency of UNASUR.