MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US Assistant Secretary of State will be visiting Mercosur members next week

A hard task awaits Arturo Valenzuela

Recently nominated United States Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela will be making his first trip to the region next week with visits to Mercosur full members, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, reported the US State Department.

Spokesperson Charles Luoma-Overstreet said that Valenzuela will be discussing “bilateral and multilateral” issues of common interest with officials from the different countries he will be visiting.

“This is his first visit to the Southern Cone as Assistant Secretary so the trip will have a significant protocol ingredient with presentations and courtesy visits to leaders”, said the spokesperson.

Valenzuela was finally confirmed by the US Senate November 5, six months after having been nominated by President Barack Obama. A Conservative Republican senator kept his veto standing to protest the US policy in Honduras, until an agreement was worked out,

His predecessor in the job Thomas Shannon who has been nominated as ambassador in Brazil is also awaiting confirmation since he has also been exposed to a veto.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva administration recently expressed disappointment with the lack of “continuity” in the US policy towards Latinamerica which begun under President Obama.

Foreign affairs advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia said that the promising start when the April Americas summit in Trinidad Tobago has “vanished”, and pointed to the recent rifts on the issues of Honduras and US military bases in Colombia, as two examples.

The four Mercosur full members which Valenzuela will be visiting openly reject the US policy towards Honduras and the recent November 29th presidential election.

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay do not accept the results of the elections and continue to recognize as Honduran president ousted Manuel Zelaya and demand his reinstatement.

The US approach and of several other regional countries is that the election can be a way out for the crisis and the restoration of democracy. Mercosur countries and the rest of Latinamerica argue that under no circumstances can they accept elections, or election results, under a de facto regime.

“This would mean sponsoring coups and we will never accept such a position”, said Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who now holds the Mercosur chair.