Este es el lugar donde actualmente funciona la Unasur, en Quito, Ecuador.

(CNN Español) — Carlos Holmes Trujillo, nuevo canciller de Colombia, dijo este viernes en conferencia de prensa que el país se retiraría de Unasur.



La Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (Unasur) se constituyó en 2008 y desde entonces ha enfrentado tropiezos que han detenido el ritmo de la integración.

“Creemos en la necesidad de relanzar la OEA para fortalecerla, en desarrollo del principio de defensa y fortalecimiento del sistema interamericano”, dijo Holmes

“Pondremos una nueva política de fronteras. Formularemos nueva política migratoria”, añadió. “Vamos a retirarnos de Unasur. Colombia dejará de ser miembro”, dijo.

¿Está Unasur en crisis?

En abril de este año, seis países miembros anunciaron al gobierno de Bolivia —que actualmente tiene la presidencia temporal— su retiro temporal del organismo regional.

Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Perú y Paraguay precisaron que su salida se debía a que consideraban que Unasur no funcionaba debidamente.

“Dadas las circunstancias actuales, los países firmantes hemos decidido no participar en las distintas instancias de Unasur a partir de la fecha hasta tanto no contemos, en el curso de las próximas semanas, con resultados concretos que garanticen el funcionamiento adecuado de la organización”, se leía en el comunicado. También se mencionaba “una alarmante situación de indisciplina” en el interior de la Unasur así como lo que califican de “denuncias graves y demandas entre el personal directivo desde febrero de 2017”.

En Unasur permanecen Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Surinam, Uruguay y Venezuela.</s>"We believe in the need to relaunch the OAS [Organization of American States], we are going to launch a new border policy, a new immigration policy, we are going to… withdraw from Unasur," Holmes said at a news conference in Bogota.

READ MORE: Colombia's New President Vows to Alter Peace Deal With FARC Rebels

The Unasur is an intergovernmental regional organization comprising 12 South American countries.

In April 2018, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru suspended their membership in the organization.</s>Colombia’s foreign Minister Carlos Holmes announced Friday that his country is withdrawing from Unasur, the union of South American countries after months of division between member states.

The country suspended its membership in April after months of infighting on the worsening situation in neighboring Venezuela and the succession of Colombian ex-President Ernesto Samper as the South American union’s president.

The bloc was founded in 2008 to promote regional integration and diminish US influence in South America. Political divisions, however, had virtually paralyzed the organization.

Other countries led by conservative governments also suspended their membership, mainly over disagreement on Venezuela, a founding state that has slowly degenerated in a virtual one-party state similar to Cuba.

According to President Ivan Duque, the Unasur membership had become toxic and effectively made Colombia “complicit in the Venezuelan dictatorship.”

Holmes said that other countries who suspended their membership in April could follow suit and withdraw, which would effectively end the continental project that essentially sought regional integration.

“We are consulting with other countries that want to take the same course. In any case, Colombia will withdraw from the constitutive treaty, it is an irreversible policy,”

Since its foundation, the governments of a number of member states have shifted to the right while the socialist-run Venezuela has become increasingly authoritarian.

Resolutions that sought to condemn human rights violations in the oil-rich country were sunk by Venezuela’s allies in the region and countries that depend on free oil distributed by Caracas.

The organization has been without a secretary general since January last year when former Colombian President Ernesto Samper ended his term.

The lack of consensus and leadership has removed “the conditions that allow taking decisions” as one body, former Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said in April.

Colombia to withdraw from Unasur; South America split over Venezuela was last modified: by</s>United States’ Defense Secretary James Mattis will be visiting Colombia this month as part of a South American tour, the Pentagon said Thursday.

According to the US’ Department of Defense, Mattis will first visit Brazil on Sunday, and then travel to Argentina and Chile in an attempt to strengthen military ties with the continent’s largest economies amid instability in the region.

Colombia will be the secretary’s last stop before returning to Washington DC.

According to the Pentagon, “the White House declared 2018 the “Year of the Americas”, and the secretary’s trip underscores the department’s strong defense ties with Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.”

“These relationships are critical to a collaborative, prosperous and secure Western Hemisphere,” according to the administration of President Donald Trump.

Mattis’ trip to Colombia serves to “meet members of the newly elected administration” of President Ivan Duque, who took over the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday.

The conservative Duque, who worked in the US capital for most of his professional career, has expressed unequivocal support for strong US influence in the region.

When he was still president-elect, Duque’s first foreign trip was to Washington DC where he met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and John Todd, the commander responsible for US military activity in Central and South America.

One Colombian radio station reported that Duque also met with Trump’s chief of staff, General John Kelly.

Duque returns to Washington, this time as Colombia’s president-elect

Both Colombia’s new government and the Trump administration have been vociferous critics of the government of Venezuela, where socialist President Nicolas Maduro has gradually implemented a virtual one-party state.

Unlike Trump and some of his hard-line allies in the White House, Duque has so far rejected the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela.

In regards to cocaine trafficking to the US, the world’s largest cocaine consumer, Duque — unlike his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos — has echoed American proposals for more repressive policies to curb cocaine production in the country.

While the president and many of his conservative and far-right allies have expressed approval of the current American government, average Colombians told pollsters they disapprove of the US president almost as much as Maduro.

Nicolas Maduro and Donald Trump, the most disliked leaders in Colombia

US defense minister to visit Colombia during South American tour was last modified: by</s>BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia will ask the United Nations to designate a special envoy to coordinate humanitarian aid for the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants flooding into countries around the region, the foreign minister said on Friday.

More than a million people have arrived in Colombia from Venezuela over the last year and a half, fleeing a severe economic and political crisis in the socialist country that has caused food and medicine shortages.

“We are going to insist on the strengthening of an emergency humanitarian fund and we are going to propose the creation of a special envoy under the United Nations who can coordinate the multilateral actions that are required because of the humanitarian crisis we are living,” foreign minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo, who took office on Tuesday, told journalists.

Colombia has spent millions on aid for Venezuelan migrants, including food, shelter and medical care. Many arrive with only what they can carry and are often underfed.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Wednesday announced an additional $9 million in aid to Colombia to help with the crisis, during a visit to the border city of Cucuta.

Trujillo said he had not yet received a formal extradition request from Venezuela for six people it has accused of involvement in the explosion of drones at a military event last week and who are believed to be in Colombia. Venezuela’s government has said the incident was a failed assassination attempt.

“I don’t like to talk about hypotheses - we’ll see. ... I’ve been told the request for extradition has not formally arrived, if it’s going to arrive,” the minister said. “If it arrives, we will review it.”

Trujillo reiterated that Colombia would withdraw from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), created a decade ago in an attempt to counterbalance U.S. influence in Latin America, in tandem with several other nations. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru have already indefinitely suspended their participation in the body.

“We’re consulting with other countries which apparently want to take the same route. If we consolidate a similar decision from these consultations, we’ll act in conjunction. If not, we’ll withdraw anyway.”
Colombia announces its withdrawal from the Union of South American Nations after having suspended its membership in the organization since April 2018.