IPS-English DEVELOPMENT-LATIN AMERICA: 'Italy Wants to Play its Role'
 
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:50:06 -0700

 
Sabina Zaccaro

ROME, Oct 19  (IPS)  - The European Union could help in better distribution
of the benefits of economic growth in Latin America, under proposals
presented at a meeting between Italy and Latin America-Caribbean countries
this week.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet told the conference held in Rome
Oct. 16-17 that she would welcome EU support for efforts towards greater
social cohesion.

The conference, the third such, was organised by the Italian ministry
for foreign affairs, the Rome based-Italy-Latin American Institute
(IILA) and the Centre of Studies for International Politics (CeSPI),
an independent research association based in Rome.

The meeting followed a declared policy by the Italian centre-left
government that considers ”relations with Latin America a priority
for our foreign politics,” Prime Minister Romano Prodi told the conference.


Representatives from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries, and
from several European countries attended the summit. The summit followed
11 meetings held in Italian cities since the beginning of the year.
These meetings addressed cooperation between the two regions by way
of economic agreements, and development cooperation in infrastructure,
technology and communications. 

Bachelet has sought Italian and EU support for efforts to build social
inclusion in Latin America. She said that in spite of some successes
in poverty reduction, the number of disadvantaged people in Latin
America reached 220 million in 2006, 20 million more than in 1996.


”Latin America is experiencing a true paradox, where the period of
peace and democratisation of its governments -- a process that started
15 years ago -- is not leading to social cohesion,” she said. ”We
must now build a fairer globalisation, a course that requires stronger
political convergence with the European Union.”

”In the last five years, the Latin American market has grown 4.5
percent annually, and between November 2005 and the end of 2006, we
had 34 democratic elections in the region,” said José Miguel Insulza,
secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS). ”Since
democracy and socio-economic development are interdependent, the problem
is whether this growth is sustainable.”

The OAS is a multilateral forum based in Washington that includes
35 nations of North, Central and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Its mandate is to strengthen democracy, promote human rights, and
confront problems such as poverty, terrorism and corruption.

Latin America and the Caribbean are the most violent regions, and
poverty and inequality is high, according to the World Health Organisation
(WHO). ”The need for education, health assistance, environment protection
and public security can be only answered by strengthening institutions,
and joint cooperation with Europe is key to this process,” Insulza
said.

The question is whether Latin America is priority for the EU. Insulza
said that while Europe did play a key role in the Latin American stability
process during the complex years of dictatorships and internal crises
(1980), in recent years ”both Europe and the United States have shifted
their attention to other regions.”

The only significant exception to this ”careless” attitude is Spain,
whose interest in Latin America has found expression in investments,
cooperation projects and political participation. 

Donato Di Santo, Italian deputy minister for foreign affairs for
Latin America, said Italy intends to become ”a solid bridge between
Europe and Latin America, and to be the second European special interlocutor
of Latin America, after Spain.” 

Some concrete steps are due shortly. Prodi said the government plans
to become a part of the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), the Latin
American financial institution for sustainable development. Joint
projects have already been started with the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB), a finance institution for the development of Latin American
countries. 

Italy is particularly keen on cooperation in renewable energies,
such as development of bio-fuels in Brazil and geothermal power in
Chile. Such commitments will include human rights, Di Santo told IPS.


”We share the view of the EU as expressed at the last Euro-Latin
American summit in Santiago,” he said. ”The line of the EU is to support
-- not only formally but practically -- the fight against social exclusion,
against the structural origins of poverty, and the defence of all
those citizens deprived of their freedom and their rights.”

Italy has recently joined the countries that play the role of facilitators
in the dialogue between the government in Colombia and the National
Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional). Violations of human
rights have been frequently reported in confrontations between the
two.  

On the eve of the Rome conference, Yolanda Pulecio, mother of former
presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, abducted five years ago
by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the main rebel
group involved in Colombia's decades-long armed conflict, asked for
support from Prodi and foreign affairs minister Massimo D'Alema for
release of Betancourt and other political prisoners.

 (END/IPS/EU/LA/IP/DV/IF/SZ/SS/07)


 
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