Paraguay finally says ‘aye’ to Venezuela’s Mercosur full membership
Venezuela’s incorporation as a full member of Mercosur has been secured following the confirmation of a political agreement in Paraguay, the only of the four-country group that still had a vote pending in congress.
According to the Paraguayan press the agreement reached between President Fernando Lugo and the opposition, as has been advanced by Mercopress, includes seats in crucial organizations such as the Supreme Court, Comptrollers Office, Electoral Court, Attorney General, Foreign Service and a positive vote on Venezuela’s request to join Mercosur as full member and on the Unasur (Union of South American Nations) charter.
The Lugo administration needs 23 of 45 votes in the Senate to have the two initiatives approved and mathematically they can be reached between the Liberals and Unace, a splinter group from the main Colorado opposition party.
The Liberals were the main force behind the now atomized coalition that supported Lugo for president and Unace is described as a ‘pbp’ (principles but pragmatic) group led by a former general, Lino Oviedo, who spent time for organizing a coup but has a strong support in Paraguayan rural and impoverished areas since he is fluent in Guaraní the aborigine language.
According to sources from the Interior Ministry that is leading negotiations there are two possible scenarios: next month during the recess when the Congressional standing committee that takes over next December 21will have the necessary votes to consider the issue and call an extraordinary meeting of both chambers, or even this week, and on time for President Lugo to arrive at the Mercosur summit with the Venezuelan membership under his arm.
The agreement also includes a positive vote of the Unasur charter which only turned “legitimate” this month when the Uruguayan congress voted aye, rendering the ninth out of twelve approvals needed for such formality.
Venezuela’s formal request dates back to December 2006. The Argentine and Uruguayan lawmakers soon approved the initiative but the Brazilian congress only complied December 2009 following on strong lobbying from President Lula da Silva and Brazilian corporations.
The Paraguayan Senate has been reluctant to vote on the issue because of internal political problems (weakness of the Lugo administration) and Venezuelan President Chavez attitudes towards the opposition and the press which have been a good excuse to contain Brazilian and Argentine pressures on lawmakers.
The opposition Colorado party claims that besides the political agreement, Venezuela allegedly has sent an ‘incentive bonus’ (six million US dollars) deposited in an Argentine bank for the two political groups voting on the incorporation.
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13 comments Feed
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Lugo comes out pretty strengthened….
Paraguayan oposition pretty weakened…..
From “Fantastic Four” to “Fantastic Five”…..
Don't even need to change my socks monogram :-)
Mamá Cristina shows, yet again, who is in charge…….
Paraguay will get money by instalment from Mercosur.
Paraguay :
Protected area ... 57.854 sq/km
Agricultural area ...20.400 thousand hectares
Arable land...4.500 thousand hectares
Fertilizer Consumption ...350.000 tons
Oil Production ...66 millions barrels
Oil Consumption...30 millions barrels
Electricity Consumption ...4.500 Gigawatt/hours
Metane Emission ...4 millions tons/year
Motor vehicles...700.000 units
Lenght of roads ...30.000 km
Lenght of railways ...440 km
I don't think so mr think. Doesn't exist for 2 reasons.
From my Brazilian friends I hear Mercosul and they don't care much about it. Second, So far I read about Brazilian corporations, they work for them self, not for Mercosul or in Spanish Mercosur.
When you bother to comment about illegal immigrants in South America... why don't you bother to know the rules and laws?
Where do you have the Info that they are illegals?......From your good Brazilian friends?
Well, here is some news (2002) for them and for you.....
Below you can find Mercosur, Chile and Bolivia's treaty of free residence and movement for its citizens.
es.wikisource.org/wiki/Mercosur_-_
_sobre_Residencia_para_Nacionales_de_los_Estados_Parte_del_Mercosur,_Bolivia_y_Chile_(2002)
And yes, it is in Spanish.
We do speak Spanish down here............
Dutch newspaper who wrote about when there was a discussion about illegal immigrants in the US and when Lula da Silva came up with the scheme to legalize illegal immigrants in his nation.
And Again..perhaps you think that Mercosul/Mercosur is some kinda land where people within that organization can travel freely and stay if they want. Wrong. They can enter each other's nation with a bit easier, but to stay still depends on the nations laws and if they want them to stay.Mercosul/Mercosur is nothing more than a so called free trade organization (doesn't always looks like that) but also allow it's citizens travel easier within that area..(other rules are applied when you want to stay)
and again..for bubble heads who “think” that only Spanish is spoken down there in South America, they are wrong and need to travel more. In South America they also speak Portuguese, English, Dutch and French.
We will have to ask Mercosur to disregard its own treaties signed by six presidents and follow instead the analysis of an undisclosed Dutch newspaper......
And who said that “ Only Spanish is spoken down there in South America” ?
I just tried to avoid you asking me for an English or Dutch translation as you have done before.
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