Runasur: what is it and what are the real scope of the meeting organized by Evo Morales?

The former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has announced that Runasur – an organization that he leads and that, in Spanish, can be understood as the “Peoples of the South” – will have a meeting in Cusco on December 20 and 21.

To better understand what it is about and what its true scope is, Trade consulted with four specialists.

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The first thing to note is that the birth of the Runasur was announced in April of this year, and that it is a project that, according to its manifesto, is added to the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).

Its objective, says the Telesur portal, is “articulate a multinational America”; that is, to unite social movements, whether they are “indigenous, workers, middle class and teachers” with “intellectual professionals” to obtain it “true liberation” region of.

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Headquartered in Bolivia, Runasur has the support of some union leaders in that country, and seeks to expand its reach in other latitudes. Hence, the former Bolivian president has spoken of this next appointment in our archaeological capital.

The Bolivian political scientist Marcelo Arequipa explains that, in ideological terms, Runasur takes “the discourse of the people against the empire, which is what Morales handles very well as a political discourse”.

“It is going to try to establish in the international discussion that there is a constant danger that the Latin American peoples are oppressed or threatened by the US empire.”.

The columnist and professor emeritus at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) Franceso Zaratti maintains that the Runasur serves “to promote the figure of Evo as a leader of social movements”.

“Not much can be said because so far, the Runasur is just a name. It would be necessary to see what happens now that they are going to meet. But, for the moment, they have a very generic declaration, of union of social movements, and they maintain that from them the change, the revolution, must take place.”.

“Those are statements, let’s put it like this, lyrics”.

What do you mean?

Zaratti gives an example: when the presidents meet, they set certain objectives and try to translate them into laws or agreements. “But, what do the meetings of the social movements translate into? In protests?”Asks the professor at the La Paz university.

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FROM SAID TO FACT

The Peruvian analyst Óscar Vidarte note that, as well as the Puebla Group articulates progressive leaders and Sao Paulo Forum It does the same with left-wing political parties. Runasur wants to work with social movements with a very strong indigenous component.

“And, of course, Morales tries from the name, to link him to Unasur, which practically does not exist, is paralyzed. Several countries have left, others have stopped their participation”.

In that sense, one would have to wonder about the real scope of the Runasur. In this regard, Vidarte asks for peace of mind: “Hopen to see if it is consolidated”.

“But I think its scope is greatly exaggerated. The same thing that happened two years ago with the protests in Chile. Then it was said that the fault lay with the Sao Paulo Forum, that Venezuela was involved. I wonder: what capacity does Venezuela currently have to influence others?”.

“Thinking the same about this case is giving Evo a lot of power. It is true that he is a regional leader and that he will surely have influences in some countries, but that does not mean that he is internationalizing a way of understanding the world”.

On this, Zaratti recalls that the current political reality of Latin America must be taken into account. “Now it is very fluid, very dynamic”.

“It may be that Peru has had a turn to the left, but Ecuador had it to the right and it is very likely that Argentina will go to the center right. The ideological landscape in the region is not homogeneous”.

What if Jair Bolsonaro is re-elected in Brazil, the perspective of the Runasur will change completely.

“The real question is how far the Runasur can influence the rest of the countries. It is not just about thinking about continental objectives, but about seeing what concrete things can be done”.

“Now, no government would like these events to happen in their territories. I guess Castillo doesn’t either. Each government has its own dynamics, its problems and they exercise power in their own way, so that movements that want to give them lines and objectives are brought together.”.

In that sense, concludes Zaratti, this meeting “is more disturbing than constructive for Latin America”.

Under the principle of reconstitution of the Plurinational America of our ancestors, we convened the II meeting of the Abya Yala peoples in Cuzco, Peru, December 20 and 21, 2021, as agreed in the second technical meeting of RUNASUR with representatives of several countries pic.twitter.com/HLHEA55uqU

– Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) November 3, 2021

A DANGEROUS INTROMISSION

Who is more radical in his position is the former Peruvian vice chancellor Eduardo Ponce Vivanco. He maintains that the “Morales’ claim is geopolitical“And that has”as a purpose to seize southern Peru and infest it with a typically subversive movement”.

“Having the spirit of convening a meeting of this nature in Peruvian territory is the last straw. It is a delegated interference of the Bolivian government. Peru cannot allow this, which is extremely dangerous”.

Contrary to what the rest of the specialists summoned for this article think, Ponce maintains that it is not convenient to think that this meeting is irrelevant since it lacks real power. He claims that the Runasur is “the Sao Paulo Forum of peoples and social movements”.

“It seems to me that, out of national dignity, geopolitical convenience and a modicum of vision, this cannot be tolerated. It must be rejected immediately at the political and diplomatic level. It is a challenge to the Torre Tagle Foreign Ministry, which cannot remain impassive in the face of an intervention of this magnitude”.

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Deshawn