The third Summit of South American-Arab Countries (ASPA) commenced today in Lima, Peru. Ministers from twelve Latin American countries and 12 countries from North Africa and Middle East countries will meet for two days to discuss ways to cooperate together.

Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff called on Latin American and Arab countries to work together against poverty and inequality.

“The future of our regions depends on our ability to develop and cooperate, strongly investing in education, science, technology and expansion and innovation to guarantee the security of food and energy, important issues in the 21^st century,” President Rouseff said.

The ASPA website explains the similarities between the regions saying, “The paths of history are converging as both regions share the same interest in economic and social progress, environmental preservation and intercultural dialogue as a means to create sustainable development and build world peace for all”.

President Rouseff spoke about the situation in Syria. “Brazil is in favor of a negotiated settlement to resolve the conflict,” she said. She spoke about Iraq and Libya stating that Brazil wants to contribute to the reconstruction of those countries, but she knows it is up to those countries themselves.

In addition to the summit, there is the third ASPA Business Meeting innagurated by Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil el-Arabi.

Mercosur has suspended Paraguay from the Presidents’ Summit in Mendoza this Friday, 29th June, following the conflict surrounding former president Fernando Lugo’s removal from office last Friday.

In a Sunday announcement from the Argentina Foreign Ministry office, Mercosur prohibited the new Paraguayan government under President Frederico Franco from the summit, including the preparatory meetings that start today.

Mercosur members jointly expressed their disapproval of Paraguay’s interruption of democratic order, a highly controversial series of events in which Lugo was impeached and replaced by Vice President Frederico Franco.

The incident sparked heavy criticism from neighbouring countries. Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela withdrew their ambassadors from Asunción, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ordered the halt of oil shipments to Paraguay, referring to the new Paraguayan government as “illegitimate and illegal.”

Lugo, who says his removal from office is a coup against the popular will, plans to travel to Mendoza for the summit, where he will explain the situation occurring in Paraguay.

Regional trade bloc Mercosur is an economic and political agreement between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, as well as associated members Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Venezuela is currently in the process of becoming a full member. Argentina presently holds Mercosur’s rotating presidency.

It’s not easy to get one-hundred and ninety countries to agree on anything. But that is what has been achieved at the end of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development. World leaders and their representatives returned to their respective capitals waving the 283 paragraph agreement in the air and hailing it as a great success.

But that is the politicians. The agreement has been criticised as unambitious fluff that fails to bind its signatories to doing anything.

Greenpeace called it a disaster of epic proportions. The former Costa Rican president, Jose Maria Figueres, said: “Governments have failed you. They have not saved face nor saved the planet.”

The leading economist, Jeffrey Sachs, who has been at the heart of many climate change negotiations, laid a large part of the blame on his own government. “Behind the scenes,” he said, “the US has been a footdragger on a number of major climate change issues because it’s in thrall to vested interests.”

The indigenous people, youth groups, environmental organisations and many of the politicians in Rio said much the same, calling the final document, named The Future We Want, a wasted opportunity.

The Rio+20 Executive Coordinator, Brice Lalonde, said it was important to have a document even if everyone was not happy with it. “All the key actors are united behind the same cause,” he said.

Meanwhile, yearly average temperatures continue to rise, glaciers are melting, flooding and drought exacerbated by climate change wreak havoc around the world, especially in developing countries, while the levels of pollution keep growing.

Indigenous leader, Tom Goldtooth, from the United States, urged everyone to pay greater respect to our Mother Earth. “We are all in the same canoe,” he said.

Some will say that at least we are still talking. The nations of the world will meet again later this year in Qatar. But the most commonly heard sentiment heard around the conference centre and at the people’s conference on the other side of Rio de Janeiro was: “What we need now is action.”

Bolivian President Evo Morales welcomed leaders from the Western Hemisphere yesterday as they gathered for the summit of the Organization of American States (OAS), calling on the organisation to work “in service of the people.”

Morales opened the summit being held in Tiquipaya, a town near Cochabamba, calling for the refounding of the organisation to connect with local peoples and communities.

“The OAS only has two paths: to be reborn in the service of the people or die in the service of the empire,” he said, according to Cuba’s Prensa Latina. The news organisation noted that Morales spoke about the beginnings of the OAS, calling it a ministry of the United States’ colonies. He noted that it has “often served as a means to invade countries, to support dictatorships, to repress social movements and combat socialism.”

As he stated last week in the lead-up to the summit, Morales also reiterated that he believes Bolivia should have a route to the ocean through Chile and the Falklands/Malvinas should be Argentine.

Also speaking yesterday, OAS secretary general José Miguel Insulza asked governments to pay special attention to human rights systems.

“We must be especially careful, since the defense of human rights is one of the main functions of this organisation,” he said.

The theme of the summit is food security with sovereignty, with Insulza noting that the summit presents “a unique opportunity to continue this debate and reaffirm our commitment to overcoming poverty and promote integral development, equitable economic growth and the reduction of the percentage people who suffer from hunger.”

With at least two leaders on the ground in Colombia and more on their way, the western hemisphere is getting set for the Summit of the Americas, taking place 14th and 15th April.

Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller stepped into Colombia earlier this week, and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera was the second to touch down, arriving Tuesday night. Piñera also joined Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on a family trip with their wives to a national park today, according to the Colombian outlet El País.

Mexican president Felipe Calderón is among a slew of others expected to touch down today, while Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is making his way south from the cold, snowy weather.

This is the sixth summit, and it is taking place in Cartagena, Colombia. While each country is bringing its issues with it, there are a few big topics that are sure to makes waves.

Drugs

Many Latin American countries are now putting potential drug decriminalisation or legalisation on the table as an option to taming the violence surrounding it.

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina has been pushing the issue, mentioning the pros of legalisation at a recent Central American summit and saying the strategy that has been used to fight drug trafficking has “failed.”

Mexico’s Calderon has also called for national debate on the issue.

On 29th March, a bill was presented to Argentine Congress to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal consumption.

However, in March Salvadorian President Mauricio Funes and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega refused to give their support to the cause of drug decriminalisation.

Trade

Canadian media are reporting that Prime Minister Harper is set to push trade to the table with a trans-Pacific free trade zone, according to the country’s Trade Minister Ed Fast who was in Peru today.

The agreement, if all goes according to plan, would set up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement including nine countries whose borders edge on the Pacific Ocean.

Other trade issues are sure to arise. On 26th March, US President Barrack Obama announced that his administration would temporarily suspend trade benefits with Argentina. The president said the move was in reaction to the South American country not acting “in good faith” with regards to fee agreements.

Cuba

On 8th March, the Colombian president confirmed that Cuba could not attend the Summit of the Americas.

“Unfortunately, the decision to invite Cuba requires a consensus, and we haven’t been able to obtain one,” Santos told reporters at the time.

On 4th April, Equador’s President Rafael Correa wrote a letter to the Colombian president stating that he would not attend the summit in protest, adding that the meeting cannot be called the Summit of the Americas while “an American country is intentionally and unjustifiably neglected.”

The United States said they would like to see widespread participation, noting that the summit “offers an opportunity for regional leaders to discuss issues that affect all citizens,” according to a US State Department spokesperson.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner arrived in Caracas last night ahead of the first meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), due to be held on Friday and Saturday.

She was received at the airport by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez, as well as the foreign minister Nicolas Maduro.

The meeting will mark the formal creation of a new regional body, CELAC, which will aim to resolve interregional conficts, as well as discuss politics specific to the subcontinent. It is the last step in the search for an autonomous regional diplomatic coordination, without U.S. presence; a process which has taken almost 30 years.

Before the summit, Fernández will meet with Chávez today to discuss the bilateral agenda, as well as the possibility of cooperation between the two countries on social issues. Tomorrow, the Argentine president will meet with Dilma Rouseff, her Brazilian counterpart, to discuss a series of bilateral trade disputes that have arisen between the two countries.

This Wednesday marked the end of the 40th Summit of the Communal Market of the South (MERCOSUR), held in Paraguay this year. The presidents of member countries and associated regional organizations pledged to further an inclusive social development.

In the final document of the meeting, the leaders emphasized “the consolodation of the region as one of the most attractive markets on the international level.”

The heads of state showed their backing of a regional integration of energy, and of the freedom of the states to share their energy resources.

Because of this, they criticized the United States for imposing unilateral sanctions against the Venezuelan oil industry.

Additionally, through a press release they granted backing to Argentina in its demand of sovereignty for the Faulkland Islands.

During the summit, the president of the Abuelas of Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, was honored as a “distinguished citizen of MERCOSUR.”

The Uruguayan president, José Mujica, assumed a temporary presidency of the regional organization after a six months term held by Paraguay’s president, Fernando Lugo.

Article courtesy of Agencia Púlsar.

The World People’s Summit on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth starts today, Monday 19^th April, in Bolivia.

Delegates are gathering in the city of Cochabamba for a grassroots alternative to last year’s UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.

The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, who refused to sign the Copenhagen climate change deal, called for the gathering to give the poor and the global south an opportunity to respond to the failed climate talks in Denmark.

Several thousand people are expected in Cochabamba. Among them, indigenous and civil society movements, scientists, activists and government delegations will attend the meeting. The summit will run until Thursday 22nd April. Mother Earth will be celebrated that day.

Morales proposed the Cochabamba meeting in the wake of the climate change summit in Copenhagen last December, arguing that the views of developing countries were largely ignored.

Morales’ idea is to give a voice to the world’s poorest people. This week, he should propose a world referendum to ask up to two billion people their views on how to tackle climate change.

“With this summit we need to organize a worldwide coalition of social movements, of networks, of NGOs, in order to—all of them, with different perspectives maybe in Asia, Africa, Europe or here in Latin America, but all with a common purpose, how we are going to save the future of humankind and of our Mother Earth by trying to have enough force in order to press developed governments to have a really commitment to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions”, Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s ambassador to the UN, told Democracy Now.

The Bolivian government wants the UN to set in motion moves to create an international environmental court.

Last year, the UN backed a proposal by Morales to designate 22 April as International Mother Earth Day to celebrate the Andean divinity Pachamama, or Mother Earth.

Meeting in Washington, the president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, and the US president, Barack Obama, have promised to create a “firm alliance” between the two countries. The leaders discussed increasing trade links and working together on security issues, such as combating drugs trafficking.

Funes flew to Washington, in what was the first visit of a Central American leader to the white house since Obama’s inauguration. The two presidents spoke for just under an hour, before issuing press statements from the oval office.

Both Obama and Funes emphasised the “strategic partnership” between their countries. Funes told press: “as Obama put it so well, we are looking to make the US a strategic partner. Not a stronger partner, or a weaker partner, but an equal and effective partner.”

He specified what El Salvador was hoping to gain for a relationship with the US, saying: “basically what we’re looking for are resources for poor, small and medium sized companies, that will be able to create a better economic situation in El Salvador.” He also talked about working with the US to professionalise the El Salvador police force in order to combat drug traffickers. However, he stressed that the roots of the drug problem lay in El Salvador’s poverty, and it was necessary to combat deprivation, rather than simply increase the power of the police.

Obama praised Funes’ leadership, applauding “the steps he’s taking to try to break down political divisions within the country and move it forward with a spirit of progress and focusing on prosperity at every level of Salvadorian society.”

The US president also stressed the strength of trade ties that exist between the US and El Salvador, pointing out that over half of El Salvador’s exports go to and one third of its imports come from the United States. He promised to improve the economic relationship by assisting El Salvador with credit, and working to improve infrastructure. Moreover, the leaders reached an agreement to work towards increasing the production of bio-fuels and renewable energy, in partnership with Brazil.

Funes, a former journalist, is the first left wing President to be elected in El Salvador since the end of the country’s devastating civil war in 1992. Funes’ party, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMNL), was founded by Marxist guerrillas, who fought against the US backed government in the 1980s. However, since coming to power, he has stressed his moderate stance and sought to strengthen ties with the US. He has distanced himself from more radical left-wing regimes in Latin America, such as that of Hugo Chavéz in Venezuela. Instead he has praised the more centrist economic policies of Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Today the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón and his wife Margarita Zavala, welcomed Latin American heads of state and government to The Rio Group Summit, held in Cancun. Leaders started arriving in the Mexican city yesterday for the two day, biennial meeting, which this year has three major political issues on the agenda.

The 25 luminaries will work through Monday and Tuesday on the contentious decision to create a multilateral organisation made up of ‘American’ countries without the inclusion of the United States or Canada. It is currently unclear as to whether this new body would attempt to replace the existing Organisation of American States (OAS) which includes the United States and Canada. Leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Bolivia’s Evo Morales have affirmed that they would like a replacement to OAS but other heads of state have suggested that a co-existence of organisations is possible.

On arriving at the summit, Chavez stated, “It must be a union of republics distinct from the OAS which has always worked under the hegemony of the US.” Mexico’s foreign secretary Patricia Espinosa, said that she promotes the creation of, “an appropriate regional forum which assumes the functions of both the Rio Group and the Latin America and Caribbean Summit on Integration and  Development”, commonly known as the Unity Summit, also taking place in Cancun this week.

Over the weekend, foreign ministers at the Unity Summit have been discussing the merits of this new and exclusive organisation as well as its legal status, but did not reach a coherent conclusion. The final decisions are now left with the Rio Group leaders but it is thought that a union will not be officially created until 2011 at the next major meeting.

Also on the Rio Group table for discussion is the continued aid needed in Haiti following the earthquake that devastated the country last month. At the recent Mexico-Caribbean Community Summit (Caricom) Haiti’s president, René Préval appealed to the region’s dignitaries for an international coalition to help and to not forget about his country citizens, more than a million of whom are still homeless.

The other major topic of discussion will be the current dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina over oil and gas exploration in the seas around the Falklands/Malvinas. Although an ‘off-agenda’ item, Argentine president Cristina Kirchener will seek to achieve a formal declaration of support from the Rio Group countries in opposing Britain’s decision to go ahead with hydrocarbon searches in the South Atlantic.

The Rio Group, formally known as the Contadora Support Group, was created in 1986 with The Declaration of Rio de Janeiro and it was initially formed to promote peace amongst the violence of Central American states in the 1980s.