MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Runasur cancels Cusco Summit citing COVID-19 concerns

Runasur cited health concerns, but can Evo enter Peru is he is a persona non grata?

The organization of alleged native South Americans Runasur, headed by former Bolivian President Evo Morales (2006-2019), Monday announced the suspension of its forum scheduled for Dec. 20 and 21 at the Peruvian city of Cusco, citing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus Omicron variant.

“After a health assessment, the Runasur Technical Commission has just suspended the event scheduled for December 20 and 21 in the city of Cusco, Peru,” announced Vladimir Cerrón, secretary-general and founder of Peru's ruling party Peru Libre.

Runasur is an organization created by Morales last April in an attempt to rebuild the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), an entity currently made up of Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela.

Meanwhile a group of former Foreign Ministers or Deputy Foreign Ministers of Peru have denounced Runasur is “a transnational geopolitical project that seeks to establish a Plurinational America” under the pretext of indigenous ancestral rights.

“The initiative called Runasur, which intended to meet in the city of Cusco on 20 and 21 of the present, does not simply constitute a conclave of native peoples but, as stated in its documents, of a transnational geopolitical project that seeks to establish a Plurinational America through the replacement of the [current] republics by plurinational states governed by original constituent assemblies,” the document said.

“As such, we reiterate that it is a project that constitutes a threat to sovereignty, independence and national security, so it should not be allowed to take place in Peru,” they added.

The former diplomats insisted that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007 clearly bans states, people and groups of people from carrying out activities contrary to the Charter of the United Nations or undertake actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity or the political unity of sovereign and independent states.

The statement is signed by former Foreign Ministers Allan Wagner Tizón, José Antonio García Belaúnde and Ricardo Luna Mendoza, as well as eight former Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs: Alfonso Rivero Monsalve, Hugo Palma Valderrama, Alejandro Gordillo Fernández, Eduardo Ponce Vivanco, Jorge Voto Bernales Gatica , José Antonio Arrospide del Busto, Fernando Rojas Samanez and Hugo de Zela Martínez.

Read also: Peru's Congressional Committee declares Evo persona non grata