Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Business diplomacy

The Unasur Summit showed that the best situation for the local bourgeoisie is to try and maintain regional stability, given that the preceding years of economic recuperation has reactivated trade between countries within the region and despite the international crisis trade has continued. This explains why not one president, including Chavez, Morales and Correa, was […]

Left Voice

September 9, 2009
Facebook Twitter Share

The Unasur Summit showed that the best situation for the local bourgeoisie is to try and maintain regional stability, given that the preceding years of economic recuperation has reactivated trade between countries within the region and despite the international crisis trade has continued. This explains why not one president, including Chavez, Morales and Correa, was willing to break with Columbia for allowing the instillation of North American military bases. That’s why, beyond the clear differences and clashes, the overall objective of the summit was to save the unity and consensus.

This is particularly evident in the case of Brazil. As an editorial writer for Pagina 12 put it, “For Brazil, who’s GNP is equivalent to the GNP of all of the countries in the region put together, a South America in peace is an indispensible condition for its global project”(…) Brazil needs a region conflict free and minimally integrated around a leadership that the diplomats of Itamaraty present as positive”.

Along with being the projected leader of the region, Brazil greatly benefits from the fluid commercial exchange that it maintains with Venezuela. Along with businesses like PDVSA and Petrobras, Venezuela is now seventh in receiving exportations from Brazil, ranging from agricultural and food products to automobiles.

The Columbian businessmen are also interested in maintaining commercial ties with Brazil, now that the diplomatic conflicts with Chavez have been hurting their businesses, as was seen during the Military invasion in Ecuador in 2008. According to the official statistics from the Columbian business chamber, Venezuela is second, after the US, in receiving Columbia’s exports, which has increased 6 billion dollars, a 300% increase, in the last four years.

With differences, the commercial exchange between Latin American countries has become an excellent business for the local bourgeoisie and for multinational companies that are present in the region; these principles, not “ideological positions” are what direct the Latin American government’s diplomacy, where they continued to coexist with Chavez and the ALBA block with the United States’ unconditional allies, like Uribe, despite the right’s coup in Honduras and the North American military basses in Columbia.

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Archive

The Unknown Paths of the Late Marx

An interview with Marcello Musto about the last decade of Marx's life.

Marcello Musto

February 27, 2022

The Critical Left in Cuba

Frank García Hernández discusses the political and economic situation in Cuba and the path out of the current crisis.

Frank García Hernández

February 27, 2022

Nancy Fraser and Counterhegemony

A presentation from the Fourth International Marxist Feminist Conference.

Josefina L. Martínez

February 27, 2022

Who is Anasse Kazib?

Meet the Trotskyist railway worker running for president of France.

Left Voice

February 27, 2022

MOST RECENT

A square in Argentina is full of protesters holding red banners

48 Years After the Military Coup, Tens of Thousands in Argentina Take to the Streets Against Denialism and the Far Right

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Argentina on March 24 to demand justice for the victims of the state and the military dictatorship of 1976. This year, the annual march had renewed significance, defying the far-right government’s denialism and attacks against the working class and poor.

Madeleine Freeman

March 25, 2024

The Convulsive Interregnum of the International Situation

The capitalist world is in a "permacrisis" — a prolonged period of instability which may lead to catastrophic events. The ongoing struggles for hegemony could lead to open military conflicts.

Claudia Cinatti

March 22, 2024

Berlin’s Mayor Loves Antisemites

Kai Wegner denounces the “antisemitism” of left-wing Jews — while he embraces the most high-profile antisemitic conspiracy theorist in the world.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 22, 2024

What “The Daily” Gets Right and Wrong about Oregon’s Move to Recriminalize Drugs

A doctor at an overdose-prevention center responds to The Daily, a podcast produced by the New York Times, on the recriminalization of drugs in Oregon. What are the true causes of the addiction crisis, and how can we solve it?

Mike Pappas

March 22, 2024