It
is welcome to see steady progress in the Southern Cone. This has taken years, but the magnet of a
truly emergent Brazil has shortened all paths and the ancient problems are seen
to be dissipating. Outsider
interpretations tend to be specious, including my own, but I do subscribe to
historic inevitability. The designation
remains clear.
And
while Western eyes are elsewhere, South America is finally getting on with
their future with rapid growth setting in.
It
has been a long wait. Paraguay has huge
oil potential in the Eastern part of the country.
Paraguay's
diplomatic offensive is showing results
MONDAY,
NOVEMBER 25, 2013
BY PETER TASE AND MARTIN BARILLAS
Paraguayan President
Horacio Cartes conducted his first official visit to the Vatican. Meeting with
Pope Francis on November 25, Cartes broke little new ground since Paraguay (a
predominantly Catholic country) has long had good relations with the Holy See.
These bilateral relations only improved following the visit of Pope John Paul
II to Paraguay in 1988.
Pope Francis and
President Cartes held a private meeting for 30 minutes. After an exchange of
gifts, Pope Francis met briefly with Cartes’ family members. The Paraguayan
leader was accompanied by his sister, Sarah, and his two daughters, Sofia
and Maria Sol. Also attending were Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga,
General Secretary of Presidency Juan Carlos Lopez Moreira, and private
secretary Fernando Ojeda.
In an indication of
preferential treatment, the pontiff will meet with Cartes again on November 26
during a Mass to be celebrated in the chapel of the papal residence.
For President Cartes
this is the eight official visit since beginning his term in August of
this year. Unlike any previous Paraguayan president, Cartes has begun a
vibrant, proactive and pragmatic foreign policy which is intended to bring
benefits to Paraguay through international commerce, research and development,
and the promotion of Paraguay’s image abroad as a country with abundant natural
resources. His diplomatic campaign is intended to improve the current image of
Paraguay has outside of the country.
Paraguay and MERCOSUR
Even though Cartes has
been very active in promoting his nation’s potential in the Latin American
region and Europe, Paraguay’s re-integration in the MERCOSUR is a process that
requires its own time and is slowly advancing. He has already visited
Spain, which was his first diplomatic destination. He has also visited Uruguay
and Brazil. According to foreign minister Loizaga, “It is logical that
National Congress has a constitutional role to play in regards to Paraguay
active role in the MERCOSUR regional trade Block. Especially in approving
bilateral treaties and international agreements so that Paraguay could be fully
re-incorporated in the international stage.”
During the previous
government, Paraguay strongly objected to admitting Venezuela to the MERCOSUR
regional trade alliance. This came about when Paraguay was summarily ousted
from MERCOSUR after accusations emerged that former President
Fernando Lugo had been illegally impeached. Since President Cartes
has sought to mend fences with his immediate neighbors, MERCOSUR member
countries have shown some signs of respecting Paraguayan institutions and,
particularly, its congress.
Lozaiga extolled
the thawing of Paraguay’s relationship with neighboring Latin countries. “We
are working with our partners: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. We have worked on
the lists (Ed. note: to make inroads with EU markets), but I say again that
Paraguay will bring forward everything necessary, and that there is respect on
the part of MERCOSUR member states for Paraguay’s position.”
Relations between
MERCOSUR and Paraguay appear to be on the way to normalization. However, so far
there is no sign that Paraguay will attend the multilateral MERCOSUR conference
to be held inVenzuela next month. No invitation has emerged from Venezuelan
President Francisco Maduro. Paraguay continues to maintain that the
admission of Venezuela into MERCOSUR still needs the approval
of Parguay’s congress. Earlier this month, Paraguayan foreign
minister Lozaiga said “we are working to find a juridical solution with
political backing”.
Paraguay continues to
protest that its suspension from MERCOSUR, over the impeachment and removal of
ex-President Fernando Lugo, did not follow the guidelines of the trading
bloc. Venezuela was then given admission to MERCOSUR by three other full
members (Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay) when Paraguay was suspended. Even
while the Organization of American States validated the impeachment process,
MERCOSUR called it a “congressional coup” orchestrated by Lugo’sopponents.
That Uruguay’s leftist President José Mujica said of Venezuela’s admission to
MERCOSUR that “sometimes political issues must overcome institutional
situations,” has only validated the perception that Paraguay was a pawn in a
regional tectonic shift to the left and away from the United States.
Paraguay is now
surrounded by countries that have ticklish relations with the U.S. and that
have shown increasingly independent stances. With a likely victory for leftist
Michelle Bachelet in Chile presidential runoff election, a continuing veer to
the left in the Southern Cone is in the offing. It was during the government
under interim President Federico Franco – Lugo’s former vice-president – that
relations with the U.S. improved. For example, closer cooperation emerged under
Franco with the U.S. in areas such as narcotrafficking and terrorism, and
trade. Now in office in August 2013, President Cartes has demanded Paraguay’s
full re-incorporation into MERCOSUR, which respects Paraguay’s political
processes, international law and MERCOSUR guidelines.
For now, Paraguay is
actively conducting bilateral meetings with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay,
especially in the area of trade. Paraguayan businesses have loudly complained
about what they consider unnecessary delays and harassment by Argentine customs
officials that have had a negative impact on Paraguayan commerce, for example.
Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner, who has been closely aligned with
Venezuela throughout her term, has been a vocal critic of Paraguay and its institutions
and has managed to stir up nationalist sentiments in Paraguay with which it has
had troubled relations ever since the fratricidal Tri-Partite War in the 1860s.
One area that may show
results of Paraguay’s smile campaign came last week when the Bolivian Foreign
Affairs Minister David Choquehuanco visited Cartes to discuss final details of
a an agreement on supplying liquefied natural gas from the Andean republic. Even
while Bolivia and Paraguay went to war in the 1930s over petroleum reserves in
Paraguay’s Chaco region, they do have commonalities. Both Bolivia and Paraguay
have seen a resurgence of pride in their respective pre-Columbian national
heritage and Amerindian languages; both are landlocked because of disastrous
wars; and they share a common resentment towards countries such as Chile,
Argentina, and Uruguay, which are mostly Hispanic and European in orientation,
and where Bolivian and Paraguayan nationals feel marginalized.
Spero columnist Peter M. Tase writes on international and
trade issues. Martin Barillas edits Speroforum.
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