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An article from Sputnik News
On assuming the temporary presidency of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has called for the preservation of South America as a zone of peace, free of the war dangers that affect other parts of the world.
“This is the second time we have assumed the responsibility to coordinate work with countries throughout South America, and Bolivia’s great desire is for South America to be a zone of peace,” said President Evo Morales at the Government Palace.
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The Bolivian leader, in a statement through state media, said he also intended that Unasur coordinate with the European Union on issues such as development planning, legislation and common citizenship.
“We propose to build a South American identity in terms of defense, to consolidate the region as a zone of peace, free of nuclear weapons and of mass destruction, rejecting war, promoting disarmament and the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the culture of peace in the world,” he said, concerning the main objective of his temporary regional presidency.
Morales succeeds his Argentine counterpart Maurio Macri in the pro tempore presidency of UNASUR, an organization created in 2008 and whose first important resolution was to support the Bolivian president that same year in the face of a wave of political and regional protests that apparently sought to remove him from power.
More here: President of Bolivia says that the main threat to peace is the US Government
The president said that UNASUR has effectively acted in favor of the peaceful settlement of disputes, supporting negotiations between the Government of Colombia and rebel armed groups in that country, following the logic that “peace is built with social justice.”
It would seem, as the saying goes, that no good deed goes unpunished.
According to the ALBA movement, the major countries of UNASUR are withdrawing, at least temporarily, in reaction against the policy established by Bolivia. Here is a translation of part of their declaration:
“The sovereign and integrationist vision promoted by Bolivia and the other countries of ALBA-TCP is opposed by the war strategy of other UNASUR members, subordinated – as throughout history – to the imperial powers, at this moment in particular to the United States , whose elite tries to control again what they consider their backyard. For this purpose it is the political, media, economic and military siege against Venezuela and the diplomatic offensive against Unasur and CELAC.”
The ALBA-TCP, or Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela.