The presidents of Peru, Pedro Castillo, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, advocated for Chile and Venezuela to rejoin the Andean Community (CAN) to have a “strong voice” on the regional and international stage.
At the 22nd meeting of the Andean Community Presidential Council at the headquarters of the organization’s General Secretariat, where Peru assumed the interim presidency of the Andean Community for the period 2022-2023, Castillo described the reinstatement of Chile and Venezuela as full members as extremely important.
He said that it would contribute to the “charisma of the Andean Community and the benefit of its members,” especially because they share the “Andean heritage” in geographic and political terms.
The Peruvian leader recalled that 53 years ago Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela recognized the need to consolidate the union of their peoples and agreed to lay the foundations for a strengthened Andean subregion.
The Andean Community, created in 1969, consisted of Chile until 1976, when it was dissolved under the regime of Augusto Pinochet, and Venezuela, which was dissolved in 2006 under the government of then-President Hugo Chávez.
For Castillo, the time has come to “move forward and include all the Andean countries in this integration process, reunited in a single homeland.”
The Colombian head of government agreed with his Peruvian counterpart that Chile and Venezuela should return to the subregional mechanism because “we need to be stronger and bring more voices together.”
Both Peru and Colombia considered it very important that the Andean Community be integrated by Argentina, with which they share the Andes.
“The CAN must have power. If we manage to integrate Chile, Venezuela, and Argentina in a new scenario, I think it would fundamentally change, and our voice would be heard more clearly on the world stage,” Petro continued.
In the joint statement issued Monday at the 22nd meeting of the Andean Presidential Council, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru agreed to consider “whether it is advisable to invite other countries in the region to join the mechanism” to form an expanded, robust bloc that would strengthen trade, promote social and economic development and advance the effective integration of Latin America.