South American Summit

Brazil’s Luiz Inacio hosted his South American counterparts on Tuesday as he seeks to bolster regional relations.

On Sunday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won re-election in a historic runoff that will extend his rule until 2028.

Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) Chairman Ahmet Yener said that Erdogan was elected as the new president with 52.14% of the votes. “Even if all of the results that have not been entered into the system yet go to a presidential

Erdogan was applauded during his first decade as a leader for transforming Turkey into an economic and political success story, but over the last 10 years he’s faced mounting criticism — both domestically and internationally — for quashing dissent and adopting rules and laws typical of autocratic regimes. Turkey is also battling record-high inflation, and Erdogan faced criticism in the wake of a February earthquake that killed 50,000 people in Turkey.

Erdogan’s chief rival, Kemal Kilic-

Erdogan, 69, is now set to remain in power until 2028. A devout Muslim, he heads the conservative and religious Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Erdogan transformed the presidency from a largely ceremonial role to a powerful office through a narrowly won 2017 referendum that scrapped Turkey’s parliamentary system of governance. He was the first directly elected president in 2014, and won the 2018 election that ushered in the executive presidency.

Leaders from 11 countries and the president of Peru’s council of ministers are convening in Brasilia to seek common ground on areas including health care, infrastructure and the environment, according to the Brazilian government. They will talk during hours-long, closed-door sessions meant to foster intimacy and frank communication.

This is the first summit of South American leaders since 2014. Many of those leaders are dealing with domestic woes and unable to focus on regional partnerships.

Economies are shaky, with particular alarm in Bolivia and Argentina. New leaders who were initially welcomed with fanfare in countries like Chile and Colombia are now grappling with falling popularity. Others, like Peru and Ecuador, have faced full-blown political crises.

The failures of the region’s new wave of leftist leaders have attracted the most attention, as Chile’s Gabriel Boric and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro struggle to advance progressive agendas focused on strengthening public services. But Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso’s move to dissolve congress and head off a looming impeachment attempt earlier this month showed that the continent’s few market-friendly leaders are also on the ropes.

Peru’s President Dina Boluarte, the only South American leader who wasn’t in attendance, is facing the risk of criminal prosecution over accusations that she failed to halt the killing of protesters during demonstrations that began last December. In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro has presided over a dramatic economic collapse that has prompted more than 7 million people to flee since 2015.

Despite the challenges, Brazil insists that dialogue is needed.

“Dialogue is between states,” Gisela

Maria Figueiredo Padovan, the Brazilian government’s secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, told reporters on Friday. “We want to have a vision of the integration of states, and different countries go through different domestic circumstances that we have to understand.”

On Monday, Lula received Maduro in the Venezuelan leader’s first state visit to Brazil since 2015. Ties between the two nations fell apart during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro, but Lula declared the relationship fully restored.

Both heads of state said they discussed Venezuela’s potential addition to the group of so-called BRICS countries, which includes the world’s most prominent emerging markets, as well as desires to use local currencies instead of the U.S. dollar to do business. Lula also criticized economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela.

“South America needs to be convinced that we have to work as a bloc,” Lula said. “It is impossible to imagine that the countries alone are going to fix their serious problems.”