(CNN Spanish) — The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, announced this Tuesday the re-entry of the country to the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), by sharing a working meeting with the members of the Puebla Group and the Latin American Council of Justice and Democracy (Clajud), in the Hall of Original Peoples of the Casa Rosada.
“In Latin America we are all in the same boat, and the construction of unity must set aside political use, because that condemns us to further postponement. That is why we must revitalize Unasur as soon as possible, ”said the president at the closing of the meeting, where he announced the reactivation of Argentina’s rights and obligations before the regional organization.
In this way, Argentina normalizes its presence in the bloc with its return to institutionality, which was interrupted during the previous government. Currently, Unasur is made up of Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru.
In this sense, Alberto Fernández urged “to agree on the need to build a regional bloc as a self-defense mechanism because no one can be saved alone”, and considered that “if Brazil and Argentina are inside, Unasur will have another power and we will have to move forward so that all the brother countries return to the path” towards this regional bloc.
In his speech, the former president of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said that “Argentina has earned to be the country that leads the fight for human rights in the last 40 years, and that is why Spain is here transferring a fraternal hug to the Argentine people for his inspiring task”, and at the same time he proclaimed himself in favor of “a before and after in pursuit of the unity of Latin America so that poverty is definitively abolished, equality is the only horizon and that human rights are what that exports” the region.
The former president of Colombia Ernesto Samper stressed the importance of “Argentina returning to Unasur” so that the organization “strengthens, expands and resumes the social flags of progressivism in Latin America.” He also specified that “this political integration is based on preserving the condition of the region as a zone of peace in the world, as well as on the continuity of democracy and respect for human rights on the continent.”
The former president of Bolivia Evo Morales maintained that “cultural diversity is our wealth, it is our identity to face adversity”, and stressed the need to guarantee “political, ideological and also legal sovereignty” because the “current struggle is for resources natural: if it belongs to the peoples under the authorization of the States, or to the private ones under the looting of the transnationals”.
In turn, the former president of Ecuador Rafael Correa pointed out that “integration goes far beyond ideology”, and emphasized that “today more than ever Unasur will be necessary in the face of a very serious economic crisis that will affect us more sooner rather than later for continuing to depend on an extra-regional currency”
