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Lessons from Latin America

Daniel Hannan

Saturday, 10th December 2005

Daniel Hannan on why South Americans don’t want to imitate the European Union

Euro-diplomats are grinding their teeth in frustration. For 15 years they have been urging the nations of South America to form a supra-national union in mimicry of the EU. They have held seminars to teach the Latinos about the joys of integration. They have funded campaigns for a pan-continental parliament. They have declared that the EU will sign trade and aid deals only with blocs, not single states. But the colonials just don’t get it. Satisfied with their free trade zone, they doltishly refuse to see why they need political harmonisation too.

It’s hard not to sympathise with the Euro-federalists. The notion that ‘the world is dividing into blocs’ is a vital part of their Weltanschauung. And if ever there was an obvious bloc, it is South America. Its peoples share a common language (all right, the Brazilians speak Portuguese, but they can understand Spanish — although, rather unfairly, the converse is not true). They have a shared religious and cultural background. They watch each other’s abominable soap operas. Yet they show no interest in merging their political systems.

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