The Forum for the Progress and Integration of South America (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''Foro para el Progreso e integración de América del Sur'', PROSUR;

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ''Fórum para o Progresso e Desenvolvimento da América do Sul'', PROSUL) is an initiative by

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (; born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman and politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic polit ...

and

Iván Duque Iván Duque Márquez (; born 1 August 1976) is a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the president of Colombia from 2018 to 2022. He was elected as the candidate from the Democratic Centre Party in the 2018 Colombian presidential ...

, for the creation of an integration body to replace the

Union of South American Nations The Union of South American Nations (USAN; es, links=no, Unión de Naciones Suramericanas, UNASUR; pt, links=no, União de Nações Sul-Americanas, UNASUL; nl, links=no, Unie van Zuid-Amerikaanse Naties, UZAN; French: ''Union des nations s ...

. In the words of the Colombian president, who made the announcement on 14 January 2019, PROSUR would be "a South American coordination mechanism for

public policies Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

, in defense of

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...

, the independence of powers, the market economy, the social agenda, with sustainability and with due application". On 18 February 2019, the President of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, said "this new forum will be open to all

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

n countries that meet two requirements: full validity of the rule of law and full respect for

freedoms Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency) is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies.Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?", ''Between Past and F ...

and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

". It has been characterised as a right-wing response to the left-wing UNASUR. On April 3, 2022, the new president of Chile,

Gabriel Boric Gabriel Boric Font (; born 11 February 1986) is a Chilean left-wing politician who is the 37th and current president of Chile, serving since 11 March 2022. Boric studied in the Faculty of Law at the University of Chile, and was the president o ...

, announced that the country was suspending its participation in the alliance. Suriname joined the alliance in 2022.

Summits

The first PROSUR Summit, called the "Meeting of Presidents of South America", took place on 22 March 2019 in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

, Chile. Eight South American countries taking part (

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Colombia,

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

, Guyana,

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

) signed the ''Declaration of Santiago for the renewal and strengthening of South America'', which begins the process of creating of PROSUR. The representatives of Bolivia, Suriname and Uruguay abstained from signing the declaration. Representatives from Venezuela were not invited to the summit in Santiago. The second PROSUR Summit took place on 12 December 2020; due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, it was held

virtually In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra that studies infinite groups, the adverb virtually is used to modify a property so that it need only hold for a subgroup of finite index. Given a property P, the group ''G'' is said to b ...

. The heads of state of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru participated in the summit, with Prime Minister

Mark Phillips Captain Mark Anthony Peter Phillips (born 22 September 1948) is an English Olympic gold medal-winning horseman for Great Britain and the first husband of Anne, Princess Royal, with whom he has two children. He remains a leading figure in Briti ...

of Guyana and President Luis Lacalle Pou of Uruguay invited as special guests. During the summit, the presidency pro tempore was transferred from its inaugural holder, Chilean President

to Colombian President

. A presidential declaration was adopted to formalize the transfer and promote regional cooperation between its members in matters related to the pandemic. The third PROSUR summit was held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia on 26-27 January of 2022; the 2022 summit of the

Pacific Alliance The Pacific Alliance ( es, link=no, Alianza del Pacífico) is a Latin American trade bloc, formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which all border the Pacific Ocean. The alliance was formed with the express purpose of improving regional in ...

was also held at the same date and venue. It was attended by five heads of state; its host President Iván Duque of Colombia, President

Mario Abdo Benítez Mario Abdo Benítez (; born 10 November 1971) is a Paraguayan politician who has served as the president of Paraguay since 2018. He was previously a senator and President of the Senate. Early life and education Abdo Benítez was born in Asun ...

, President

Guillermo Lasso Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza (; born 16 November 1955) is an Ecuadorian businessman, banker, writer and politician who has served as the 47th president of Ecuador since 24 May 2021. He is the country's first centre-right president ...

, Prime Minister

of Guyana and President Sebastián Piñera of

. In representation of their respective countries were Vice-President

Hamilton Mourão Antônio Hamilton Martins Mourão (; born 15 August 1953) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer serving as the 25th vice president of Brazil. He has served as vice president under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro since 1 Januar ...

and Foreign Minister of Peru Óscar Maúrtua. Argentina sent no delegation, while the President-elect of Chile,

, declined an invitation by President Sebastián Piñera to attend the two summits in Colombia. During the summit,

succeeded Iván Duque as President pro tempore but attended the summit virtually due to having tested positive for COVID-19. There have also been numerous extraordinary meetings;

President pro tempore

The temporary presidency is exercised for a period of one year and will be rotated among the member countries between each PROSUR meeting. Since January 2022, the current president pro tempore of PROSUR is Paraguayan President

References

Proposed international organizations Development in South America Regionalism (international relations) South American integration Organizations established in 2019 Sebastián Piñera {{SouthAm-stub

Summits

President pro tempore

See also

References