President Gabriel Boric participates in meeting of South American presidents
In the meeting called by Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, Chile’s President highlighted the importance of multilateral agreements between the countries of the region, and stressed that the Chilean Government will continue to advocate respect for human rights in Venezuela.
The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, participated this Tuesday in a meeting of the presidents of South American countries. The meeting was convened by the Brazilian Government with the aim of discussing strategies for South American integration and addressing work on collaborative projects.
President Boric is in Brasilia accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Alberto Van Klaveren, where he has held bilateral meetings. During the afternoon, he had planned to participate in a forum with South America’s presidents to discuss specific initiatives for cooperation, such as health, defense, physical infrastructure, energy transition, climate change and combating transnational crime.
With regard to his participation, President Gabriel Boric stated, “this is a completely necessary space that, from our point of view, should not have been interrupted. Thanks to the leadership of President Lula (da Silva), who has managed to convene the 12 countries that are part of South America, we resume it today.”
The President also stressed that “we’ve put things on the table that unite us and also those areas in which we have differences. South America is a region with which Chile has deep economic integration, where we have trade agreements both at the country level and as blocs, with trade that has grown at an annual rate of close to 7% over the past two decades.”
President Boric also indicated that our country has proposed a series of initiatives to promote integration and improve collaborative work in areas such as culture, the climate crisis and migration.
“In cultural matters, it is absurd that more of the history of Europe is taught in our schools than that of our sister nations. Therefore, to have a day of South American dialogue, where we recognize our culture, we believe can be valuable for our identity. In terms of migration, this is one of the region’s main challenges, since 69% of migration is interregional; we therefore have a long way to go on that,” he said.
He also recognized that “the fight against the climate crisis seems to be a priority for the majority, but we all know that the climate crisis does not distinguish borders; therefore, there has to be joint action. We have also raised the importance of combating organized and transnational crime.”
Venezuela and Human Rights
With regard to the situation in Venezuela, the President emphasized that, for many of the leaders, it was the first opportunity to meet with the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. “The truth is that we are glad that Venezuela has returned to multilateral meetings, because we believe that these spaces are where problems are resolved, and not in statements where we only attack each other.”
He further stressed, “however, it cannot mean sweeping under the carpet or turning a blind eye to issues that are ethical and important to us. I respectfully stated that I disagreed with what President Lula said yesterday, in the sense that the human rights situation in Venezuela was a narrative construction. It is not a narrative construction; it is reality. It is serious, and I have had the opportunity to see it in the eyes and in the pain of thousands of Venezuelans who are in our country right now, who demand a firm and clear position regarding the fact that human rights must always be respected everywhere, independent of political color or the leader of the day.”
He added, “that applies to all of us. From our point of view, as the Chilean Government, and in particular as President, a President of the left, I think it was important to express it in front of Nicolás Maduro in this first opportunity that we have had to meet.”
Lastly, he indicated that “we also said that the sanctions that are imposed on the people do not weaken the leaders; they harm the people. Therefore, we call on the United States, on the European community, to lift the sanctions to allow the Venezuelan people, in this case, to forge ahead. We are all going to work together on initiatives such as the contact group, so that the next elections have all the guarantees that are required.”