VENEZUELA’S President Hugo Chavez is confident that the leadership capabilities and will of President Bharrat Jagdeo will make him an effective Chairman of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), and that he will lead the body into success with objectivity and bring about concrete actions.
He told the Government Information Agency (GINA) Friday: “We know about the will of President Jagdeo and also of the Guyanese people. We are certain that (President) Jagdeo, in taking the reins (of UNASUR), is going to be a masterful chairman; he is going to lead us with objectivity, and with concrete actions.”
He pledged his country’s commitment and willingness to cooperate with President Jagdeo and UNASUR to work together for the successful execution of Mr. Jagdeo’s task as Chair of UNASUR.
“We are with Guyana, and we are with UNASUR,” he declared.
Guyana and Venezuela have been strengthening relations in recent years, developing trade in mineral, food, chemicals and wood.
President Chavez played a key role in UNASUR’s creation in 2004, prior to its constitution at a summit in Brasilia on May 23, 2008.
At that summit, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay formally constituted UNASUR, a regional integration initiative to include a parliament, a Presidential forum, and a secretariat.
Chavez said UNASUR culminates Latin America’s long search for unity.
“Only in unity will we later have progressively complete political, economic, cultural, scientific, technological, and military independence,” he stated.
UNASUR includes an Energy Security Council to diversify and conserve energy and the environment and the South American Defence Council which is aimed at creating a military alliance without the United States.
In 2005, Chavez also promoted the Petro-America energy project in efforts to move towards regional integration in the energy field. This was consolidated by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
UNASUR’s main tasks are eliminating poverty and illiteracy and to provide the structural pillars for South American unity. (GINA)