The Presidents Come to Cochabamba

Dear Readers;

Don't worry – I was never under any impression that all those siren-wielding motorcades and rush jobs to plant gardens near the airport had anything to do with my return here to Cochabamba this morning. That honor goes to the fact that the Presidents of more than a dozen Latin American nations are due here Friday for a regional summit.

All this is a big deal for Cochabamba. The city has scrambled for weeks to find enough fancy hotel rooms and to clean up all the small corners of the city that Presidents might pass. I can also report that somehow (temporary or permanent, I can't say) the city has also gotten rid of that putrid smell that wafts ever-present in the air from a tannery near the airport. The best credit goes, however, to the newly arrived summer rains which have begun to paint the surrounding hills their annual redo to lovely green.

Here's a report from The Democracy Center's intrepid Gretchen Gordon on the Presidents coming to town and the parallel "social summit" being held here this week as well. We'll have updates over the next few days.

Jim Shultz

The Presidents Come to Cochabamba

Traffic is bad in Cochabamba, but this week it’s not because of civic strikes or blockades. The city is making arrangements for the arrival of 13 heads of state this Friday for the two-day Summit of the South American Community of Nations. At the same time, yesterday, the 2nd Summit for a People’s Integration kicked off its program of workshops and roundtables to put forward proposals from activists throughout the hemisphere.

The Presidential Summit

The summit process of the South American Community of Nations has an interesting history. It grew out of a series of meetings of South American presidents starting in 2000, focused on developing commercial and physical integration within the continent, or in other words, free trade and infrastructure.

In 2004, though, the direction of the summits changed, due in large part to a push from Brazil for a broader political integration. The creation of a “South American community” was proposed. The 2004 Cuzco Summit declaration described a “South American space, integrated in the political, social, economic, environmental and infrastructural spheres,” and affirmed that “South American integration is and has to be an integration of the peoples,” though the concept was still without concrete objectives. The summit taking place in Cochabamba will be the 5th summit of South American presidents, but just the second under the banner of the Community of South American Nations.

In October, Evo Morales sent an open letter of proposal for the summit, calling for a concretization of the idea of a community of South American nations, including “a treaty that makes the Community of South American Nations a real South American bloc at the political, economic, social and cultural level.” Morales also proposed several initiatives, including linking social service provision, including water and energy, a coordinated fight against corruption, a South American development bank, the linking of state enterprises, fair trade initiatives, and physical infrastructure projects that promote local development.

The Social Summit

The parallel grassroots gathering, the Summit for a People’s Integration, is being coordinated by the Hemispheric Social Alliance and the Bolivian Movement for Sovereignty and Integration with Solidarity of the People (it doesn't translate that well in English). Summit organizers predict upwards of 2,500 participants from throughout the Americas, from indigenous campesinos to non-governmental organization representatives and activists. Eighty-six workshops and roundtables are scheduled over four days, ranging from the gender impacts of various integration models, to experiences with increasing social control over water resources. Events are organized around 13 main themes including: energy, water, agriculture, migration, social rights, financing and militarization.

This year’s People’s Summit builds on the recent success of fights against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (a free trade agreement for the hemisphere) and the expansion of the World Trade Organization. Now, rather than focusing on defeating free trade proposals, the popular summits are dealing more with developing alternatives for proactive positive integration. Looking far beyond commercial agreements, the idea of this social and political integration reflects a belief that the countries of Latin America have the opportunity to improve their individual situations by working together. While often having its paths dictated by external forces including international financial institutions, trade regimes, or the U.S., a more united and integrated South America would stand a better chance of “regaining its sovereignty.” Organizers describe the summit as part of a “long process of constructing proposals for an America that is integrated, free, sovereign, and inclusive.”

Examples of this different type of integration include programs of food security, environmental cooperation, or mutually beneficial trade agreements such as the People’s Trade Agreement recently signed between Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.

This year’s summit will differ from its predecessors in that for the first time there will be a formal exchange between the official summit and its popular counterpart. Heads of State will address the People’s Summit and take proposals developed during the event.

What to Expect

Though these Summit events are usually more about relationship building than actually developing concrete plans, they will be interesting processes to watch given the recent social and political currents in the region. As more South American governments – Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador - have to varying extents rejected the one-size-fits-all economic model of free trade and deregulation, what will they put in its place? To what extent can these nations find common ground on which to pursue greater integration, and what kind of integration will that be? Will it really break out of the old economic mold? Will it really be “an integration of the peoples”?

Written by Gretchen Gordon