EUROPE MEETS A NEWLY DEFIANT LATIN AMERICA AT SUMMIT IN VIENNA.
Resource-rich Latin American countries that have been taking greater control of those resources presented a challenge to European leaders at a May 11 summit in Vienna, Austria. The meeting resulted in little likelihood of a large-scale deal between the European Union (EU) and regional trade blocs, with several South American countries involved in political or economic conflicts with each other, but European leaders did hear firsthand from leaders like Bolivia's new president who have seized control of resources that had been providing large profits for several European corporations.
The IV Summit of Heads of State and Government of the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean ended with an agreement by Central American countries to start trade talks with Brussels (the EU's capital), but the commitment from the rest of Latin America was much more tepid.
In the summit's final statement, the EU and six Central American states--Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador--agreed to open negotiations on setting up a free-trade zone. All states at the summit also agreed to "further promote and strengthen [their] bi-regional strategic partnership."
Morales: "We need partners, not masters"
European concerns regarding energy policy overshadowed the summit of 58 states. Bolivia's nationalization of its gas sector and a planned new Venezuelan tax on oil firms dominated the agenda (see NotiSur, 2006-05-12).
Bolivia's President Evo Morales told Brazilian TV that some foreign oil companies were no better than "smugglers." He added, "We said we need partners, not masters."
Morales also explained his position in a speech to the European Parliament the following week.
With their gas and oil initiatives, Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have led Latin America away from seeking trade pacts with the rest of the world and toward internal economic alliances.
Morales also said that Bolivia would consider joining the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after completing the nationalization of the gas sector, a move that Ecuador is also considering (see other article in this edition of NotiSur).
"Europe should understand that there's a change in Latin America. The people who have been taken advantage of are rising up, but through democracy, not with violence," Chavez told The Financial Times ahead of his visit to London. "I am going to defend Evo [Morales] because now they are attacking him from all sides. [By...
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