Facundo Iglesia 
Argentine President Alberto Fernández held a bilateral meeting today with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro in the first summit of South American presidents in almost a decade which took place in Brasilia.
Fernández asked Maduro for Venezuela to re-enter international forums and agencies, and to “guarantee the full validity of democracy and respect for human rights, thus contributing to the recovery of the Venezuelan economy and the well-being of its people.”
The Argentine government also said in a communiqué that “the ruling party and the opposition [should] work together to guarantee the electoral process of 2024” and reiterated the need to eliminate US-imposed economic sanctions.
“The political solution to the situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela must not be subject to external pressures or conditions to guarantee the full validity of democracy and respect for human rights,” said a presidential press release.
Opposing strategies
The bilateral meeting took place amid a clash of views regarding Venezuela among the South American leaders. Yesterday, Brazilian president Luiz Inazio ‘Lula’ Da Silva told reporters that there was “very large” prejudice against the country and that the image of an “anti-democratic and authoritarian” Venezuela was a “narrative”.
Today, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou challenged Lula’s comments.
“I was surprised when you say that what happened in Venezuela is a narrative. You already know what we think about Venezuela and about the Venezuelan government,” he said.
Chilean president Gabriel Boric also chimed in, saying that Venezuela’s problems are not “a narrative.”
“It is a serious reality, and I saw it in the eyes of the Venezuelans who migrated to our country.”
Sources in the Argentine government spoke about Argentina’s position and that of other countries regarding Venezuela. “Lula [Da Silva] is designing a continental strategy,” they said.
Lula’s goal, according to the source, is to be on top of Venezuela to “put it in line.”
“It should be costly for [Venezuela] to fight against Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, or Colombia.”
The source also said that attacking Venezuela like former right-wing presidents — such as former Argentine President Mauricio Macri and former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera — will only end up in the country “isolating and becoming more radicalized.”
Opposition leaders did not see it that way. Buenos Aires mayor and presidential hopeful Horacio Rodríguez Larreta called Maduro a “dictator” and said he was “ashamed” of the bilateral meeting. Another PRO presidential candidate, Patricia Bullrich, said that Fernández is “always on the wrong side of history.”
In 2019, the United Nations Office for Human Rights published a report on the situation in Venezuela in which it urged Maduro to take measures to “halt and remedy the serious violations of economic, social, civil, political and cultural rights.”
Da Silva is looking to resuscitate UNASUR, a regional intergovernmental organization that was created in 2008 by then-Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and it once comprised of twelve South American countries. At the time, Latin America had been experiencing a so-called “pink tide,” a regional turn to left-wing governments at the turn of the 21st century. However, in the years following the creation of UNASUR there was a backlash that led to the political landscape shifting towards the right.
Argentina left UNASUR in 2019 under Mauricio Macri’s administration and returned to it in 2023.
— Buenos Aires Herald / Reuters
