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Seat of Unasur in Quito, Ecuador. The 20,000 square meter condor-shaped building, inaugurated in 2014 in the presence of many heads of state, is an "ode to waste," denounced Lenin Moreno on March 13. Wikimedia Commons / Diego Delso

Ecuador announced Wednesday (March 13th) that it is leaving the Union of South American Nations (Unasur). This regional organization, founded at the initiative of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, headquartered in Quito, has been dormant for two years, mainly because of the political crisis in Venezuela.

"I am announcing to Ecuador today our definitive withdrawal from Unasur," Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno told a radio and television channel. He added that he wanted to recover the building of the headquarters of Unasur, which he estimated the value to 43 million, for the benefit of a university.

Como todos conocen, mi intención es that el edificio of 40 millones of dólares that nuestro país entregó como sede para @unasur, pase to the Universidad Indígena del Ecuador. In addition, retiraremos the estatua of Néstor Kirchner. El no representa the valores of nuestros pueblos.

Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) March 14, 2019

A regional forum launched in 2008 at the initiative of then Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Unasur was intended to act as a counterweight to the Organization of American States (OAS) whose headquarters is in the United States and Washington is the conductor.

The Venezuelan crisis served as a detonator

Unasur originally had twelve member states (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela). But Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Paraguay have left the organization or suspended their participation. In April 2018, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Colombia suspended their participation. In the background, the loss of influence of Bolivarian countries in the region . And in August 2018, the new Colombian president Ivan Duque announced the withdrawal of his country , denouncing the "complicity" of Unasur with the "dictatorship" of Nicolas Maduro.

The organization no longer has a secretary general since January 2017.

"Unasur has been irreversibly over since a year. Half of the member states do not participate, do not contribute. The General Secretariat has not been in office for more than two years and the staff has decreased significantly, "said Moreno, a Liberal who succeeded in 2017 to the leftist President Rafael Correa.

He also announced the dismantling of the statue of former Peronist Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who sits at the entrance of the headquarters of Unasur.

with agencies