MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unasur will consider Defence Council agenda in January

The Union of Latinamerican Nations (UNASUR) meeting in Brazil this week agreed the creation of a South American Defence Council, which will have “a collective vision of defence”, as it was defined by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet who currently chairs the twelve-member Unasur.

The agenda of the Defence Council, originally proposed by Brazil, will be worked out next month in Chile. "The Defence Council is a forum on defence affairs basically at consultation level, and with the possibility of reaching a degree of integration in defence affairs" according to Brazil's Celso Amorim. "This must not be seen as a classical military alliance since there will be no South American military forces", underlined Amorim given the resistance expressed by Uruguay and Colombia. However it's the first time a regional council in defence affairs does not include United States. Unasur also agreed on a four months deadline to give time to all country members Congresses to approve the founding chart of the organization, (only Venezuela and Bolivia have done so far) and naming a standing secretary general. An issue which has proved controversial since the candidate from countries as Venezuela and Ecuador is Argentina's former president Nestor Kirchner, which is objected by Uruguay, possibly Peru and Colombia, and even Paraguay which suggested that if no consensus is reached on Mr. Kirchner some other candidate should obtain the necessary consensus. A political violence report by a special Unasur human rights commission, which was considered by the Bolivian opposition as "shamefully bias" had no objections from country members according to Mr. Amorim. The report refers to recent acts of violence when allegedly peasants were massacred by opponents of Bolivian President Evo Morales and threatened to trigger an uprising.