2023-05-31 06:00:00
(CNN Spanish) — The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced this Tuesday in your verified Twitter account that the country is going to rejoin the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).
Petro said that to guarantee pluralism and permanence over time, he has requested that the name be changed to the Association of South American Nations.
I have decided to return the country to Unasur, ratifying the treaty approved by Congress by law and I have requested that it be called the Association of South American Nations to guarantee pluralism and permanence over time.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 31, 2023
Colombia withdrew from Unasur in 2018 during the government of Iván Duque. On that occasion, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, explained the reasons behind this decision: “we believe in the need to relaunch the OAS to strengthen it, in development of the principle of defense and strengthening of the inter-American system. Let’s go to withdraw from Unasur. Colombia will cease to be a member”.
The Union of South American Nations was created in 2008 with the signing of the Constitutive Treaty of Unasur, although the organization finally came into force in 2011. According to its statutes, its objective is to “build a South American identity and citizenship and develop an integrated regional space.”
This announcement by President Petro coincides with the signing this Tuesday in Brazil of an agreement between the foreign ministers of Colombia and Venezuela to create the “Neighborhood Commission”, which seeks integration between the two nations. The signing took place during the meeting of South American presidents in Brasilia.
Through a announcementthe Colombian Foreign Ministry explained that this new figure would have the function of “promoting cooperation and development in border areas.”
“The Commission is one more step in the strengthening of diplomatic, political and commercial relations, which were restored in August of last year, with the arrival of President Gustavo Petro,” the statement added.
Relations between Venezuela and Colombia were resumed with the arrival of Gustavo Petro to the Presidency in 2022.
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