Maduro was the first leader to arrive at the South American summit| Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/PR

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) receives, this Tuesday morning (30), 11 of the 12 presidents of South America for a summit organized by the Brazilian government. The first representatives began to arrive around 9:15 am and all were received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira.

The president of the Peruvian Council of Ministers, Luis Alberto Otárola Peñaranda, was the first to arrive at Itamaraty. Peruvian President Dina Boluarte is the only one who does not participate in the meeting with the presidents of South America. The country has been facing a political crisis and the representative is prevented from leaving the country. The Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro; the President of Suriname, Chan Santokhi; the Uruguayan, Luís Lacalle Pou; Guyana’s Irfaan Ali and Ecuador’s President Guilherme Lasso arrived next.

Finally, the Paraguayan president, Mario Albdo Benítez; the Chilean Gabriel Boric; Bolivia’s Luis Arce; Argentina’s Alberto Fernandez; and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, ended the arrival of presidents for the summit. After arriving at the palace, all were received by Lula, who was already waiting for them to start the agenda of meetings.

Without a clear defined agenda, the summit is intended to establish “frank dialogue” between the countries, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meeting with the presidents began at 10:15 am with a working session closed to the press and, from 1:30 pm, the leaders will have lunch at the Itamaraty. From 3 pm onwards, the presidents will have a new scheduled dialogue and at 8:30 pm everyone will go to a dinner hosted by Lula at the Alvorada Palace.