Unión Andina Antikuna Huñu Thaya Tuqi Mathapiña | |
---|---|
Formation | 1990 |
Extinction | 2004 |
Type | Economic alliance |
Legal status | Merged into South American Confederation |
Purpose/focus | Economic and political union |
Headquarters | Lima, Peru |
Location | South America |
Region served | South America |
Membership | 5 States: Bolivia Colombia Ecuador Peru Venezuela |
Official languages | Spanish, Quechua, Aymara |
Former name | Andean Nations Pact |
The Andean Union (Spanish: Unión Andina) was an economic and political union consisting of five south american countries.
History
Origins
The organization was originally called as the Andean Nations Pact (or simply, Andean Pact). Its original members: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru signed the Cartagena agreement in 1969. In 1973, the pact gained its sixth member, Venezuela. However, its membership was reduced back to five in 1979 with the resignation of Chile.
In 1979, the treaty creating the Court of Justice was signed and the Andean Parliament created and the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers were created.
1990: Formation of the UA
In 1983, the established Andean Pact nations were affected relatively little by Doomsday. Taking advantage of the situation, the Andean Pact members began forming plans to turn the trade bloc into a full-scale free trade zone. In 1990, the Guayaquil Accord made this change, interlacing the economies of the five members.
The five members had all had a functional democracy at least since Doomsday, in contrast to the nations elsewhere in Latin America that had fallen to dictatorial regimes. However, the Union was at first met with much controversy. The five nations formed the union mostly out of pressure to compete with the neighbouring giants of Brazil and the United American Republic. Many questioned the legitimacy of the union's inclusion of both Peru and Ecuador, which had been at on-and-off war with each other for over a century and a half, without resolving conflicts.
Creation of the SAC
Peru and Ecuador were engaged in a bizarre proxy war between 1997 and 2000. The Andean Union decided to intervene by threatening to boycott both countries if fighting did not cease. The Andean Union successfully halted conflicts as both parties cut off support for terrorist organization. This lead to increasing questions of whether the Andean free trade agreement should expand to a military alliance as well as an economic alliance. As well, both Peru and Ecuador needed assistance in restarting their economies. Following the war, Peru's authoritarian government was able to push through the crisis while Ecuador was faced with difficulty in setting up a stable democracy.
The Andean Union was also met with increasing market penetration by the ANZC, which was quickly collecting territory and economic prowess. In order to combat this, the Andean Union nations plus Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile met to discuss a possible extension of the newly tightened Andean Union combined with ALADI. This was accomplished on the 26 September 2004, the 21st anniversary of Doomsday.
Structure
Initially, due to the fact that the Andean Union's function was principally commercial, the Andean Union maintained a structure similar to the Andean Pact of Nations. However, at the end of the 90s, due the necessity of further integration in more areas in addition to the economy, the member states began a series of reforms that transformed the organization into an entity with more power and relevance.
Early Organization System (1990 - 1998)
- Andean Presidential Council (created in 1990)
- Andean Foreign Relations Ministers Council
- Commission
- Headquarters (Lima, Peru)
- Andean Court of Justice
- Andean Congress (Bogotá, Colombia)
Later Organization System (1998 - 2004)
- High Andean Council: The Executive Organ, and was integrated by the Presidents (or in his replacement, by the Minister of State from the respective country, who was acting as plenipotentiary representative) of each of the members of the UA. It directed the international relations and the policies of integration and direction of the Union; its decisions were by consensus.
The High Council further created a Secretary General (whose nationality was rotary, and lasted two years), who acted as spokesperson of the organization.
- Andean Parliament: The Legislative Organ; it was composed by members democratically elected by each of the countries of the UA. The number of representatives was proportional to the number of inhabitants of each member state. While he did not actually legislate, the AP did try to lead the legislations of the Union, dictating agreements for each state's laws.
- Supreme Andean Court of Justice: This original structure of the Andean Pact was maintained in the new organization system, but it was later granted more power.
Members
See Also
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