Mujica proposes to blend Mercosur and Unasur into an only `more flexible group
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica proposed to its South American peers to blend Mercosur and Unasur into an only group, according to an interview with a Uruguayan weekly in which he also ratified his commitment with Venezuela (and its oil resources) to justify the incorporation of the fifth full member of Mercosur.
“I favour and have proposed my peers to transform Mercosur in Unasur or the other way around, so that they become an only group. I don’t know how it would be called but we need to open other institutional paths, which are more flexible and more realistic”, said the Uruguayan leader.
Mujica said he shared his proposal with the presidents from Argentina, Cristina Fernandez; Brazil, Dilma Rousseff; Chile, Sebastián Peñera and Peru’s Ollanta Humala during the recent Mercosur summit in Mendoza which was followed by an emergency meeting of Unasur, Union of South American Nations.
“The region must think and look twenty years ahead and forget the short sightedness, the short terms”, Mujica told his peers.
The president said that with Venezuela inside Mercosur “it’s a three giants match against two weaklings (Uruguay and Paraguay) but with Unasur we can open to other strong countries from the Pacific such as Colombia, Peru and Chile”.
He also argued that Uruguay gave its support for Venezuela’s controversial incorporation to Mercosur, during the Mendoza summit, which was possible following the suspension of Paraguay, “not taking advantage of a circumstantial situation but because we are committed to Venezuela, its oil resources and its reality”.
“We are telling the world: ’wait a minute, we need the oil resources here (in South America)”, explained Mujica. Uruguay imports all of the oil it consumes and Venezuela has become the supplier of 65% of that total.
The way Venezuela was admitted into Mercosur triggered a sour controversy in Uruguay and particularly in the ruling coalition. Vice-president Danilo Astori described it as a “serious blow and injury” because it is “a very harmful serious institutional aggression”.
Astori is considered the architect of Uruguay’s current orthodox policy and the guarantee of the country’s fiscal consolidation, investments and attempts to further open the economy. He has become increasingly critical of Argentina and Brazil’s protectionist policies.
Foreign minister Luis Almagro revealed that Uruguay did not want the access of Venezuela to occur as it happened and that his Ministry will assess the juridical validity of such a move, which must be confirmed at a Mercosur meeting scheduled for July 31 in Rio do Janeiro.
Both Almagro and the Defence minister Fernandez Huidobro have been summoned to Congress to explain what really happened in Mendoza at the summit and to explain the presence during a week in Uruguay of 250 Venezuelan forces, without approval from the Legislative, and which on several occasions in meetings with their peers in military barracks swore allegiance to the Bolivarian Socialist regime of President Hugo Chavez.
Meanwhile Uruguay’s junior opposition party proposed during a long debate in the Lower House of congress that the Mercosur 1991 founding chart be again signed by the presidents and ratified by the four countries parliaments.
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Don't come and say I didn't tell you about the drastic changes in Mercosur :)
Is “Yanqui!” your new saludation?
Conqueror,
I doubt it will come to that.
Mujica talks nonsense.
You wont know what hit you :)
Scouting party was it? Let's hope not.
Chileans define their nationalism in terms of Argentina ?!*
Few statements could be further from the truth.
I am not sure what you are asking @12
I am sure that I am being objective. If you ask any Chilean to define Chile and what it means to be Chilean, they will not make reference to Argentina.
It is a very odd point you are making.
Mercosur needs trading protocols more than ever now - and RAPIDLY - especially to protect the 'minnows' and to remove politicisation and partial protectionism.
What needs to happen is the dismantling of Parlasur. Unasur has made it redundant.
Then we need to boost our own production as a region.
This is looking great :)
There you go. Nothing to worry about. Just Uruguayan troops swearing allegiance to Chavez. How would this be a problem? Once Uncle Pepe's proposals are enforced.... sorry, accepted, and mercosur is incorporated into unasur, “emperor hugo” will have cadres of “loyal” troops all around S. Am. Nothing to be concerned about. Just a bit of “insurance” to ensure venezuela's “allies” remain “allies” and don't think again. There are currently 12 S. Am. countries. Shortly to become 10. Colombia and Chile are “fairly” safe. For the time being. That just leaves Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname with concerns. Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru stand a small chance of remaining sovereign, for the time being. Guyana and Suriname stand no chance. They will be “absorbed”. No doubt it will happen “democratically”. So that'll be down to 8. Surely the next stage will be federalism and “ever closer union”. Colombia, with its close links with the U.S., may survive this. Chile?
#19 How did he win then? Hadn't heard he'd done a George W Bush!
Sounds like a good idea to me, to merge the political and economic unifications in LatAm. Also encouraging to see the “architect of Uruguay's orthodo economics” so isolated in the government, seems like things are moving left =)
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