Bolivia, Uruguay, Suriname Abstain from Prosur Concord

Bolivia, Uruguay, and Suriname abstained from signing the Declaration of Santiago in Chile Friday, when regional powers met to discuss the Forum for the Progress and Development of Latin America (Prosur).

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Representatives and heads of state convened in Santiago to finalize the members of the anti-Bolivarian initiative being powered by regional right-wing governments in accordance with U.S.’s interventionist agenda against Venezuela.

Guayanese President David Arthur Granger as well as right-wing presidents Mauricio Macri (Argentina), Jair Bolsonaro (Brasil), Sebastian Piñera (Chile), Ivan Duque (Colombia), Lenin Moreno (Ecuador), Martin Vizcarra (Peru), and Mario Abdo Benitez (Paraguay) signed their allegiance to the new accord.

Delegates from Uruguay, Bolivia, and Suriname strengthened their resolve and support for Venezuela and Bolivarian President Nicolas Maduro’s legitimate claim to the presidency, refusing to condone the blossoming cooperative.

In an interview with Sputnik, Uruguayan Deputy Foreign Minister Ariel Bergamino said, "Uruguay is not going to subscribe to the declaration of agents of Prosur.”

The young diplomatic group, Prosur, is meant to counter Unasur (Union South American Nations) which former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez began in an effort to unite the continent.

Ten years ago, Chavez launched Unasur to counteract the hegemonic influence of the United States in the region. A wave of more recently elected right-wing presidents in Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina and Peru all temporarily suspended their membership to the diplomatic and economic group in 2018 due to the lack of consensus to appoint a new Secretary General.

Far-right Duque also removed Colombia from Unasur when he was inaugurated last August, saying the group was too heavily influenced by Venezuela. Last week, Ecuador also announced its withdrawal from Unasur, a regional integration organization that now encompasses Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Minister Bergamino said, “(Uruguay) does not really believe that the problems posed by the integration processes are resolved by creating new bodies, and superimposing one organism on another as the layer of an onion."

"This process of creating Prosur, the same mistakes that were identified as the failure of Unasur are being committed," he said.

"We are willing to examine the different organisms and integration schemes one by one and, if necessary, adopt the corresponding measures to update them, improve them, or even if to put an end to them if it has to be done, but create by creating is not the best way,” Bergamino said.