Chavez expected in Montevideo to announce Venezuela’s Mercosur full membership
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said he will travel on Tuesday to the Mercosur summit in Uruguay in his first official foreign trip since undergoing cancer surgery in June and a further sign he is feeling stronger.
Speculation has remained rife about the condition of the 57-year-old socialist leader, who is aiming to win another six-year term at a presidential election next October.
The fact that he has decided at last moment to travel to Uruguay means that the hurdle impeding Venezuela to have access to full membership of Mercosur has been cleared, apparently acknowledging “full membership in the process of confirmation”.
Chávez denied rumours he was more seriously ill than has been publicly admitted after he cancelled a trip to Argentina and Brazil earlier this month, blaming floods in Venezuela that left thousands homeless.
“I have to be off before 10pm,” Chávez said during a lengthy televised cabinet meeting in Caracas on Monday night.
”They are having a Mercosur summit (in Montevideo), a very important one. I've now gone a year without attending these summits and since I feel well enough to go, I'm going to go.”
Mercosur is the political and economic bloc that groups Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as full members and Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador as associate members.
Chávez insists he is completely cured following four sessions of chemotherapy, although cancer experts say it is too soon to make such a call.
An overseas trip will be a politically useful show of vigour as his re-election campaign gets going in earnest.
Apart from visits to Cuba for medical treatment, the normally globe-trotting Chávez has not been abroad since a large tumour was removed from his pelvis six months ago.
Suggested Stories
-
May 25th 2012
Argentina attacks WTO and US on trade issues at OECD ministerial round
-
May 25th 2012
Three former presidents admit Mercosur has failed and has Uruguay ‘trapped’
-
May 24th 2012
Peruvian president expected in Chile for historic visit, but details are pending
-
May 23rd 2012
Buenos Aires police de-activate bomb attack on former Colombian president Uribe
3 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
Paraguay has not declared for Chavez, and may never do so.
If PA 'plays-weak' she could trade Venezuela's entry for blocking or conditioning the Mercosur trade protectionism issue. But this would trade short-term gain for long-term 'problems'.
Chavez has - apparently - NOT declared that he attends the Mercosur summit in order to be inaugerated as a Full Member,
just that he wants to 'be there'.
One can only hope.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!