Lula Highlights South America Must be United

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva paid an official visit to Colombia, in which he made a proposal to create a bilateral strategic alliance to impact South America’s integration positively.

Lula invited his counterpart Gustavo Petro to pursue a policy to try to reorganize the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) formed by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

“Today, we have an extraordinary opportunity to work on uniting South America,” Lula pointed out in a statement issued jointly with the Colombian president.

Earlier, on the opening of the Colombia-Brazil Business Forum, with a strong Latin Americanist focus, Lula remarked that South American nations have to look at each other and strengthen each other.

The Brazilian head of State commented, “we are a colonized continent; on one side, our head was historically oriented towards Europe as colonizers came from it. On the other hand, our direction headed into the United States for its more powerful economy.” The president added that, all the southern territories are still poor although their societies have been existing for 500 years.

Lula regretted, “South America has more unemployment, malnutrition, hunger, more infant mortality and fewer prospects.” The leader further referred that the United States ought to mind generating employment along with its southern neighbors, but instead, the US has a policy of building a wall, so that Latin Americans seeking job opportunities be labelled as criminals due to all their evil publicity.

Lula made an official visit to Bogota alongisde a delegation of government officials on April 17, where he was received with honors at the Nariño House, seat of the presidency. His visit was preceded by the arrival of over 50 entrepreneurs interested in negotiating with Colombia.

In addition to attending the signing of seven cooperation deals in the areas of tourism, agriculture, and information and communications technologies, Lula participated in the opening of the Bogota International Book Fair, dedicated to Brazil as guest of honor.