IBERO-AMERICA:
Portugal Wants a Bigger
Role
By Mario de Queiroz
LISBON, (IPS) -
The Portuguese
government has decided
on a new strategy in
Latin America: to cease
being a wallflower at
Ibero-American summits
and take on a more
active role, beyond the
confines of Brazil, in
relation to the
Spanish-speaking
countries.
President Aníbal Cavaco
Silva and Prime Minister
José Sócrates will both
be attending the 17th
Ibero-American Summit in
Santiago, Chile from
Thursday to Saturday.
Next year the heads of
state and government of
Latin America, Andorra,
Spain and Portugal will
be meeting in El
Salvador, and in 2009,
the summit will be
hosted by Lisbon.
Since he took office in
May 2005, Latin America
has been one of the
prime concerns of
Sócrates, a pragmatic
civil engineer belonging
to the new generation of
European socialists who
have embraced the
free-market economic
model.
In this, he has the full
support of the
conservative Cavaco
Silva, who backs the
economic policies that
Sócrates has followed.
Until the beginning of
this century, Brazil was
the sole focus of
Portuguese political and
diplomatic relations and
investment in Latin
America, for obvious
historical and cultural
reasons.
The exception was
Venezuela, which has a
community of 450,000
Portuguese, mostly
working in trade and
services. Consequently,
Portugal has
traditionally paid close
attention to its
relations with
Venezuela.
However, Sócrates’
pragmatism is making
Lisbon take a fresh look
at Spanish- speaking
Latin America, in
contrast to the policies
of former socialist
Prime Minister Antonio
Guterres (1995-2002),
who on taking office
announced that Brazil
would be his "priority
of priorities" in
foreign policy.
Now, though, economic
indicators in the rest
of Latin America have
made it attractive to
Portuguese investment.
For instance, Chile, one
of the world’s main
exporters of wine, uses
corks supplied by a
Portuguese company
headed by Américo Amorim,
who controls 67 percent
of the world trade in
cork.
"The various Latin
American countries only
arose because of the
different colonial
visions of Lisbon and
Madrid, because the
Spaniards founded
several viceroyalties,
while the Portuguese
colony of Brazil was not
subdivided," Augusto
Videla, an international
affairs analyst, told
IPS.
"And to be honest, if
Brazil were divided into
separate countries, it
could easily accommodate
15 or 20 Central
American countries," he
said.
It is often said,
mistakenly, that "Latin
America is
Spanish-speaking, but
people forget that this
is only the case for the
majority of countries
and of the population,
because in nearly half
of South America, that
is to say in Brazil,
Portuguese is spoken,"
Videla said.
Deputy Foreign Minister
João Gomes Cravinho told
IPS that "for 200 years
Portugal has had close
links with Brazil, and
Ibero-American summits
were not needed. But now
Portugal has close
relations with a number
of Central and South
American countries,
especially Chile, which
we did not have 12 or 15
years ago."
The summits involving
the countries of Latin
America, Andorra, Spain
and Portugal have
created an opportunity
to enrich and expand our
international relations
with Spanish- speaking
Latin America, which
would probably not have
occurred without these
meetings of the Ibero-American
community, said Gomes
Cravinho.
According to former
President Mario Soares
(1985-1995), Portugal
influenced all of Latin
America when leftwing
army captains carried
out the 1974 "Carnation
Revolution", the coup
d’etat that overthrew
the dictatorship in
power in Lisbon since
1926.
"The Carnation
Revolution and the
success of the
democratic transition in
Spain (starting with
dictator Francisco
Franco’s death in late
1975) had a great
influence on the later
democratisation process
of the whole of Latin
America during the
1980s," he said.
Nowadays the main thing
is for us to have an
"Iberian vision" for the
Latin American region,
said the veteran
Portuguese politician,
who in spite of turning
83 next month, continues
to participate widely in
civil society.
Do Spain and Portugal
share a common vision of
Latin America? IPS
asked.
"I think so. At least,
there is a convergent
vision, which could be
very influential in
European terms, and in
Latin America, which is
an important global
partner of the European
Union," replied Soares.
For the Iberian
countries, "bringing the
EU into a serious
partnership with Latin
America is greatly in
the interests of both
sides," he added.
Does an effective Latin
American unity exist? Is
Ibero-America united?
IPS asked.
"Yes, I would say there
is unity amid the
diversity of its member
countries, based on the
common history of the
independence process,"
he said.
Another important
factor, in Soares’ view,
"is the language of the
discoverers and
occupiers, because the
original indigenous
languages were not a
force for unity, while
Spanish and Portuguese
are spoken by one-tenth
of the global
population, and 700
million people can
understand each other in
‘Portunhol.’"
This is an ideal time to
foster relations between
Latin America and the EU,
particularly through the
mediation of Spain and
Portugal, because at
present "United States
interests and concerns
have shifted to the
Middle East, leaving
Latin America a bit out
in the cold," Soares
said.
Furthermore, the last
few years has been
marked by "economic
growth in Latin America,
averaging five percent a
year, while the
strengthening of
democracy and the
numerous elections held
in 2006 and 2007 have
given it greater
economic independence
with respect to the U.S.
and the EU, for example
in the context of the
WTO (World Trade
Organisation)," he said.
In the political arena,
Soares stressed that
many countries in the
region are to a certain
extent rejecting the
neo-liberal free-market
economic model.
"Competitiveness and
economic growth are
accepted, of course, but
a priority is also being
put on social justice,
concern for people’s
welfare, health,
education, justice,
employment, and above
all, the need to
overcome historical
underdevelopment."
However, "upon calm
reflection, there are
obvious dangers for the
foreseeable future in
Latin America, where
dictatorships have given
way to consolidated
democracies of different
characteristics," he
said.
More recently elected
governments range from
the moderate left, as in
Brazil, Chile and
Uruguay, to more radical
administrations with
different nuances in
Venezuela, Bolivia,
Ecuador and Nicaragua,
he said.
"It would be a tragedy
if deep divisions and
conflicts were to arise
between the moderate and
the radical lefts. They
would paralyse future
progress in the region,
as well as the necessary
partnership of
solidarity between the
EU and Latin America,"
Soares concluded.
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