UNASUR

UNASUR (Spanish: Unión de Naciones Suramericanas; Portuguese: União de Nações Sul-Americanas) is a regional organization founded by the Constitutive Treaty signed in Brasília on 23 May 2008. The treaty entered into force on 11 March 2011 after the ninth ratification. Its twelve original members were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The bloc was conceived as a successor framework to the South American Community of Nations (CSN, 2004) and sought to merge the integration agendas of Mercosur and the Andean Community. Its stated objectives included political dialogue, infrastructure connectivity (through the IIRSA portfolio), energy cooperation, financial integration, defense coordination, and social policy. UNASUR had its headquarters in Quito, Ecuador, while its South American Parliament was planned for Cochabamba, Bolivia, and its South American Defense Council operated as a consultative body launched in 2008.

UNASUR played a visible diplomatic role in several regional crises, including mediation during the 2008 Bolivian political crisis, the 2010 Ecuadorian police revolt, and observation of multiple elections. It also coordinated responses to the 2009 controversy over US access to Colombian military bases.

The organization entered a deep crisis in April 2018, when Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru announced the suspension of their participation, citing the prolonged inability to appoint a Secretary-General and disagreements over the bloc's handling of the Venezuelan crisis. Several states subsequently announced formal withdrawal, and in March 2019 a parallel forum, PROSUR (Forum for the Progress of South America), was launched in Santiago. Bolivia and later Argentina under President Alberto Fernández signaled intentions to return, and Lula da Silva's government rejoined in 2023, but the bloc has not recovered its previous operational capacity.