For those not familiar with South America, it may be difficult to understand some regional particularities. The impression I have is that most of the world imagines that region is totally homogeneous, full of bananas and indigenous people who heed the orders of the United States, voluntarily or not. Clearly I can not forget the Amazon rainforest! Everyone here in South America live in the middle of the forest area competing with monkeys and giant insects all the time!

Caracas, Venezuela

But I must be honest, for a long time, due to the influence of big powers like the United States and England, countries here often gave their backs to each other, seeing the other as competitors and enemies. The region was for centuries the scene of very violent wars that cost millions of lives, something that until now has left deep scars in the region and that helped very major Western powers in their missions of “divide and conquer.”

Assumption, Paraguay

Throughout the twentieth century tensions decreased and perhaps the most important step in regional integration has been given by the rapprochement between Argentina and Brazil. It may seem obvious that this approach has occurred, but it is not. Not at all! These two countries were rivals in everything, especially economically and militarily (even worse when it comes to football, but that sport rivalry apart from being an idle, yet is the result of media manipulation for the televised games have larger audiences). In short, Brazil and Argentina were almost enemies, hating and monitoring each other.

Montevideo, Uruguay

However, when the military dictatorships of Brazil and Argentina ended, the two countries were going through serious economic crises, debt and without credit abroad. Both realized they had a mutual need and thus began to sign several agreements aimed at promoting the economic development of the two countries, strengthening the position of both in the world.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Since then, relations between the two countries have improved. Of course, this relationship has had bad times (especially because of former President Menem that, among other things, destroyed the Argentinian economy) and there are still many disagreements between them, but the fact is that everything goes to regional stability through a broad project of economic integration and political. And the agreements signed between Argentina and Brazil have begun the Mercosur, group which also is composed of Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Brasilia, Brazil

Mercosur is seen here as a way to prevent the increase of U.S. influence in the region, protecting national and regional interests. Moreover, the United States do not like the Mercosur because competes directly with the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas). If before the FTAA was seen as inevitable, now has become extremely undesirable, because the United States proposal briefly is “I’ll sell to you aircraft and computers and in return I’ll buy from you coffee and bananas.”

Finally, “the south is our north” (nuestro norte es el sur) is a reality and a regional symbol of resistance against the interests of major world powers. You can even argue that Brazil is doing the same as the United States would make, because Brazil is the tenth largest world economy (Brazil’s nominal GDP is currently around U.S. $ 1.5 trillion), but the difference is huge, because all agreements involving the Mercosur countries are multilateral and mutual respect is the mark of the Brazilian diplomacy.