The Union of the Three Americas

In 1826, Bolívar tried to promote Hemispheric Integration to convene the Congress of Panama. Attended only the representatives of the governments of Mexico, Federal Republic of Central America, and Gran Colombia (Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela) and Peru. It was the beginning of the Pan-American Conferences. "The new world must be made up of free and independent nations, joined by a body of common law rules governing their external relationships". In this phrase spoken by Simón Bolívar can have an idea that he was a man ahead of his time. In a nutshell he externalized different intentions and goals.
Sousândrade was the first author in the Americas to write a pan-American poem. As the Italian historian Claudio Cuccagna said, his pan-Americanism is “one of a kind in all the continent during the 19th century”. Written 10 years before Nuestra America by José Martí, Sousândrade proposes the total union between the South and the North in the 1880s.
The Organization of American States (OAS) is the world's oldest regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890. The Inter-American Democratic Charter was adopted on 11 September 2001, acclaimed by Ambassador Odeen Ishmael: “The expansion of hemispheric unity, economic or political, can only take place with the expansion of democracy.”.
A Social Profile
Historical perspective
The consolidation of the European Union in the 20th century is an inspiring example and, at the same time, an endeavour as far as the achievement of a Union of the Americas in the 21st century is concerned. European leaders have been able to overcome difficulties, which, at first sight, appeared insurmountable, such as the diversity of cultures, socio-economic and ethnical backgrounds, languages and ideas. In contrast, there are fewer difficulties in the Americas. Rather than dozens of languages and dialects, the main languages are English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and indigenous languages. French, Spanish and Portuguese are derived from Neo-Latin. In turn, English stems back, in many respects, to Latin. These four languages have been deeply influenced by African culture, absorbing elements from other peoples’ cultures. All these played a role in the development of the Americas. Those who say that Latin America lies to the south of Rio Grande make a serious mistake. Rather, Latin America also encompasses the Canadian provinces with French background and the United States. To be sure, a third of the population of the United States has Latin American background, in particular, in California, Louisiana, Miami, New Mexico, New York and Texas. The numbers corresponding to a third of the United States’ population are certainly larger than the total population of various Latin American countries. The “melting pot” and the multiculturalism enhance Latin American influence in the Americas. That is so, leaving aside the influence by Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish immigrants, which have also made their contribution to the United States.
There are other elements which suggest a cooperative and paradoxical effort for the achievement of freedom in the Americas. The concept of freedom has been developed in England, under the influence of Freemasons such as Francisco de Miranda, Simon Bolívar and San Martin, who attended gatherings in the Lodges in London. Their ideas inspired independence of Spanish colonies in the Americas. England has also played a role in the transfer of the Portuguese Royal Family to Brazil. Sir Sidney Smith escorted the Portuguese fleet carrying the Portuguese Royal Family, including King Dom João VI and Dom Pedro I (future Brazilian Emperor) to Brazil, at the time a Portuguese colony. Hipólito da Costa, the founder of Correio Braziliense and also a freemason, had also been to England. Brazilians have also been in close connection with movements of freedom from the United States. Francisco de Miranda had been with Thomas Jefferson and others in Philadelphia, looking for assistance for the independence of Grand-Colombia (Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela). In turn, the United States acted in cooperation with the French fleet in the war of independence against England. The generals Marquis de Lafayette and Count of Rochambeau (both Freemasons), together with General George Washington, defeated General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown. In the War of Independence, the Spanish Count of Gálvez also cooperated with George Washington.
Modern times are more promising with respect to cultural paradox. The face of United States’ power, which is expressed in President Barak Obama’s, engenders the hope for freedom and tolerance among the Three .’. roots from which the Three .’. Americas stem, the indigenous peoples, whites and blacks.
Ideological and legal perspective
The triangular concept which links freedom, equality and fraternity is a symbol inherent in Freemasonry. This concept is all-encompassing with respect to ideologies and legal understandings. Norberto Bobbio refers to freedom as a state of “self”. “Ego” means “self” in Latin. In turn, “egoism” stems from “ego” and constitutes one of the foundations of liberalism. Ayn Rand conceived liberalism as a rational egoism. According to Bobbio, equality is the relationship between “self” and “the other self” (you, we, etc.). On the other hand, the “other self” is “alter ego” in Latin; “alter ego” serves as a radical for the term “altruism”. Altruism is the foundation of socialism and communism. The French realised that the two “lines” freedom and equality made no just and fair geometric shape: they added the “line” fraternity to make an equilateral triangle (pyramid). The “line” fraternity is brotherhood which instigates tolerance among peoples and ideas. Since the bourgeois revolution and the movement of liberal constitutionalism of the 18th century, that process has led to new types of constitutionalism in the 20th century. Russia in 1917 experiences the bolchevique revolution; the revolution was founded upon equality as an alternative to obtain human happiness. Mexico in 1910 and Germany in 1918 enact constitutions which appear as a third alternative. Such alternative constitutes a middle ground position between the opposing ideas of liberalism and communism. Eric Hobsbawm in The Age of Extremes appropriately calls this third alternative as social democracy. These three alternatives concern three constitutional systems:
* Thesis - Liberal Constitutionalism or Capitalism
* Anti-Thesis - Socialist Constitutionalism or Communism
* Synthesis - Social Constitutionalism or Social Democracy
Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and others adopted the concept of Capitalism, while China, Cuba, Eastern European countries and USSR adopted the concept of socialism. In turn, right after World War II, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain adopted the concept of social democracy. Although subject to military regimes, Brazil and Argentina under the government of Getúlio Vargas and Juan Domingo Perón, respectively, have also espoused the third alternative. Following the crash in 1929, the United States adopted the “New Deal” under Franklin Delano Roosevelt and thus aligned itself with social democrats and Keynesian ideas. Roosevelt was re-elected three times. The New Economic Policy of Vladimir Lenin gave a less radical approach to socialism, adding to it a touch of liberalism in order to encourage farm production, which was in decline due to the socialist radicalism.
This planet has experienced the era of extremes during the 20th century, paying little regard to Masonic wisdom. Such wisdom encourages tolerance, peace and progress for all peoples. It is worth mentioning that this ludicrous and manichaeist fight between opposed values is inherent in human nature. The ancient civilisations designed equilibrium as a middle stance between extremes. The Chinese sought to balance the extremes “yin” and “yang” through the concept of “tao”. In Greece, Aristotle developed the concept of “mesotis” as a middle ground between extremes in Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle conceived “mesotis” as equilibrium, wisdom for life, society and all problems of mankind. The Romans turned this truth into the saying “in medio stat virtus” (virtue is in the middle), which has enlightened more than two thousand years of empire. All these examples illustrate the manichaeism inherent in human beings. Hobsbawm classified the 20th century as the Era of Extremes. Following the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the cold war between the United States and USSR gave place to a polycentrism involving the Asian Tigers, the European Union and the United States. Jürgen Habermas notes that the state looks as though it were a ship having its cargo badly arranged, without containers, going from side to side as the waves go, thereby threatening the ship (the state). In his view, the “cargoes”, which are the principle of freedom (liberalism) and the principle of equality (socialism), should lie in an equidistant position in order to feed the economic, legal and political world in equal proportion. That fosters social harmony. Absolute free market is detrimental and ends up in crisis such as those of 1929 and 2007.
The Latin American states await from their big brother more to the north, the United States, for a sign pointing at social understanding and at the stepping stones for a hemispherical Union built upon the concept of “mesotis”. Union founded upon the principles of freedom, equality and, most of all, Fraternity.
May all peoples of the Three Americas still experience in the 21st century what the European Union has built in the last 50 years. May all then sing as once did the Uruguayan José Enrique Rodó, philosopher and poet of the Union of the Americas: “I have always believed that in our Americas it was not possible to speak of many fatherlands, except for a large and sole fatherland; I have always thought very high of the notion of fatherland, which is the most profound expression of emotivity of men: love for the land, poem of memories, fierce glory, hopes of immortality, in the Americas, more than anywhere, the idea shall be denaturalised, magnified, amplified, distilled in what it is narrow or negative and sublimated by its own virtue, which is positive and fertile: the Fatherland Americas shall raise upon national fatherlands and anticipate the day when today’s children, future’s men, when asked about the name of their fatherland, shall not answer Brazil, Chile, or Mexico, because they all shall have answered the Americas. Any international policy in the Americas which does not aim at this future and does not prepare itself for this harmony shall be vain and lost.”
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