South America Reasserting Economic & Political Independence

By: Kayhan Int’l

The South American continent has begun to assert its economic and political independence after decades of subservience to North America, or more properly US hegemony.

The current summit in Brasilia of the Union of South American Nations (abbreviated in Spanish as UNASUR) hosted by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who started his new term as head of state on January 1 after regaining the Brazilian presidency in last year’s election, has brought on the common platform of opposition to American imperialism, twelve countries, including Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro was warmly welcomed by Lula, who lashed out at US policy towards Venezuela, saying: “It is inexplicable for a country to have 900 sanctions placed on it, because another country doesn’t like it.” 

To the horror of Washington, he vowed to boost business with Caracas and voiced his support for Venezuela’s accession to a block of emerging-market nations, known as BRICS, hailing the UNASUR summit as “resumption of South American integration.”

UNASUR, which was created in 2008 by Lula and Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez, had held its last meeting almost a decade ago in 2014 in Quito the capital of Ecuador, before US pressures on the puppet presidents it had installed in Brazil and some other South American countries, to inactivate it.

It has now come back with a big bang and among the significant decisions so far taken at the summit was the call for establishment of a common currency for the South American region in order to reduce reliance on the US dollar. 

If successful, this would be another decisive blow to the US dollar which is on a rapid decline on being scrapped from trade transactions by most major world countries, such as China, Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Indonesia, and several others.

The strengthening of South American identity in monetary policy and trade transactions will definitely attract Latin American states outside South America, such as the seven Spanish speaking countries that form Central America as well as Mexico and the Caribbean region, especially Cuba, which for over sixty years is the target of the illegal US sanctions and crimes against humanity.

Brazil, as the largest country in the region and its main economy, is regaining its position as a global diplomatic powerhouse under the presidency of Lula. It had greatly suffered under US puppet Jair Bolsonaro who depleted the Amazon forests (lungs of Planet Earth), destroyed the health system to cause 38 million casualties and seven hundred thousand deaths (out of a population of 215 million) during the Coronavirus pandemic, and undermined the country’s economy and independence.

Lula, who supports Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme, last February opened its docks at the Rio de Janeiro Port (despite US objections) for Iran’s 86th flotilla on its round-the-world voyage, and has renewed his earlier pledge to defend the rights of the oppressed Palestinian people.

The Islamic Republic thus fully supports the aspirations of the Latin American people and wishes success for such gatherings as the UNASUR summit, which the Free World needs for ending the hegemony of the US.