Brazil rejoins Union of South American Nations after four years
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Brazil is rejoining a key alliance in Latin America after having left it under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
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Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, Paraguay's President Mario Abdo Benitez, right, at the Itaipu hydroelectric dam on their shared border in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, Thursday, March 16, 2023. (AP)
Brazil declared its return to the Union of South American States (UNASUR), a regional intergovernmental organization, after a four-year hiatus.
The measure, signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will come into effect on May 5, said a statement from the Planalto, the President's office.
UNASUR is a mechanism aimed at "promoting integration between South American countries" alongside Mercosur (Southern Common Market) and the Andean community -- a free trade area that extends beyond economic spheres to social, cultural, scientific-technological, and political areas.
South American integration and unity, according to the statement, are a requirement for sustainable development, as well as the well-being of citizens and the resolution of societal issues such as poverty, exclusion, and social inequality.
The country had under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro left the alliance in 2019, in accordance with the ex-president's isolationist policy.
Brazil also rejoins CELAC
This comes after Argentina announced its decision to join UNASUR in March, with President Alberto Fernandez underlining the importance of regional unity amid various challenges.
The union was established by socialist icon and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2008, and at its peak, UNASUR had 12 members.
Moreover, Lula rejoined CELAC, a regional intergovernmental forum founded in 2010 to promote integration and development through collaboration between Latin America and Caribbean countries.
Brazil rejoined CELAC when Silva was elected president after Bolsonaro had suspended Brazil's participation back in 2020.
"Brazil announced today to the member countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (#CELAC) its decision to rejoin, fully and immediately, all political and technical entities of the mechanism," the Brazilian Ministry tweeted in January.
The CELAC was launched in December 2011 and is made up of 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Argentina currently holds CELAC's temporary presidency.
It is noteworthy that in April 2019, far-right Bolsonaro announced Brazil’s withdrawal from UNASUR and integrated Brazil into PROSUR, which was founded in March 2019 in Chile by right-wing governments.
After taking office in early January, Lula vowed to haul Brazil out of former President Jair Bolsonaro's four-year era of "devastation" and barbarism, promising to lead Brazil into a new chapter of environmental protection, social progress, and a "rational democratic" government.
