MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

German Chancellor Merkel first visit to Latam next May

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Monday her first visit to the Latin American continent since taking office in 2005. Ms Merkel is scheduled to participate in the European Union-Latinamerica leaders' summit scheduled for next May in Lima, Peru.

In a meeting with foreign correspondents in Berlin Ms Merkel said that besides Peru she has plans to visit Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. The Buenos Aires press points out that Argentina was not mentioned in the itinerary in spite of the fact that Ms Merkel and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner are believed to have a "good relation" and met last September during a brief visit of the Argentine leader who at the time was on the campaign trail. During the September encounter in the Berlin Palace which also included German Finance minister Michael Gloss, Ms Merkel praised the recovery and growth of the Argentine economy and expressed Germany's interest in expanding investments in Argentina. However Argentina has a pending debt in the range of seven billion US dollars with the Paris Club which most members are willing to renegotiate but are demanding a previous IMF auditing of the Argentine economy which the Kirchners administrations refuse point blank. Former president Nestor Kirchner tried to blame the IMF and its recommendations for all the evils and shortcomings of the Argentine economy and made it a political rallying point to cancel all debts with the multilateral organization and definitively end all possible links. The Paris club is made up of rich industrialized countries that promote and fund exports to third countries with government resources. Mexico and Brazil are the long standing main trading partners of Germany in the region and have received billions of Euros in German investments. The visit to Colombia next to neighboring Peru is seen as a political support gesture for President Alvaro Uribe in his ongoing battle against the drug cartels and the cocaine funded guerrilla movements, which the European Union has categorized as "terrorist groups".