President Maduro Highlights the Importance of UNASUR

On Tuesday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reiterated his defense of «continental integration» on the 15th anniversary of the signing of the founding treaty of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

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«On a day like today, Commander Hugo Chavez promoted the creation of UNASUR, taking up the premise of a great homeland that our liberator Simon Bolivar outlined,» he said.

«We are still giving that fight. The Bolivarian Revolution defends the idea of the continental union to achieve a future of peace and justice for our peoples.»

Previously, during a television program broadcast on May 15, the Venezuelan leader also stressed that the Latin American peoples must confront the interference of the United States in their countries through the strengthening of regional institutions such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA).

Recalling the role that the Organization of American States (OAS) has played in all the invasions and coups that have occurred in Latin America in the last 70 years, Maduro emphasized that «our path is CELAC, Unasur, ALBA.»

On May 23, 2008, UNASUR was formally born in Brasilia under the impetus of Presidents Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Lula da Silva (Brazil). It comprised Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

«Its purpose is to develop a regional forum for addressing political, social, economic, environmental and infrastructure issues, that will reinforce the identity of South America,» the Colombian Foreign Ministry recalled.