Brazil’s return to CELAC marks a new impetus for the region

Within hours of arriving in Argentina during his first foreign visit as president of Brazil, Lula da Silva tweeted that his country “returned to the international scene“, and that his goal is to “strengthen Mercosur”, a break with Jair Bolsonaro’s isolationist tendency and a strong signal of what was already foreseen in the campaign would be a central aspect of Lula’s new government: bring Brazil back to the international scene.

In this sense, the arrival of Lula in Buenos Aires to participate in the VII Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) also has a clear symbolic weight, as Bolsonaro has decided to withdraw the Brazil since the summit in 2020 considering that “gave prominence to undemocratic regimes“.

CELAC, created in 2010 to include all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, unlike Unasur, which does not include Mexico, and the US-influenced OSA, seeks to reassert itself as actor capable of promoting regional interests.

The emergence of CELAC coincided with a particular geopolitical moment for Latin America. With strong US attention focused on the war on terrorism, the weakening of the OAS, and the fraying of inter-American institutions, the possibility has arisen of a new organization capable of channeling the concerns of the region.

The return of Brazil to CELAC at a critical moment for the region, mired in economic stagnation for nearly a decade, and without the resources of yesteryear. The reintegration of the most important country in the region opens up the possibility of laying the foundations for real integration.

In this sense, analysts suggest that CELAC has hopefully learned from the lessons of past divisions on the continent and avoid falling into ideology What happened with other cases?

Lula and the international arena

Brazilian foreign policy has perhaps been the sector that has suffered the most from the upheaval caused by the Bolsonaro government. In this sense, it is one of the fields that all analysts hope Lula will approach pay more attention and spend more timeeven if your ability to make progress is limited by your current circumstances.

The crisis caused by climate change, one of the themes that Araujo has attacked most ferociously, promises to be the spearhead for Lula’s reintegration on the international scene, as a field in which he can find matches with the United States, China and the European Union.

His speech at the Egypt climate summit, where he promised to “stop” deforestation in the Amazon, was widely covered by the international press and gave the first sign of the PT leader’s popularity on the international scene.

“I think Lula will give importance to the international scene, because he is more popular outside Brazil than inside. The controversy over the allegations of corruption does not weigh so much outside the country, e will greatly emphasize this aspect”, emphasizes in this sense the political analyst Oliver Stuenkel, who is also a professor of International Relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.

The situation in Latin America, on the other hand, presents a different scenario. Although Lula will end up with several governments with which she has an ideological affinity, each of them is facing major internal problems, on top of the economic problems exacerbated by the pandemic that have not been fully corrected. To this we must add that Venezuelan oil is no longer available for financial integration strategies.

“Today, the region is less interested in promoting an integration process, above all because it is going through a period of deindustrialisation. There aren’t so many Brazilian companies anymore that favor the Argentine market, for example,” says Stuenkel.

“Most likely, his successes are more symbolic than concrete, given the convulsive international scene. The movement for deglobalization, for the protection of economies, plays against him when it comes to making strong trade deals,” says Ramos, a research sociologist at The new school for social research and specialist in Brazilian foreign policy.