MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unasur HQ to be named after Nestor Kirchner; next Friday the official ceremony

Argentina’s former president and first Unasur Secretary General

The permanent headquarters of Unasur, (Union of South American Nations) in Quito, Ecuador will be named after its first Secretary General, deceased Argentine former president Nestor Kirchner, the government of Ecuador officially announced Wednesday.

Unasur members’ Foreign Affairs ministers are scheduled to meet next Friday in the so called ‘Half of the World’, a county to the north of Quito to celebrate the legal launching of the organization and the founding stone for the future HQ.

The Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs ministry said President Rafael Correa as well as cultural and artistic delegations from different countries will be attending and extends an open invitation for members of the public to join the celebration.

Works in the building to host Unasur are expected to officially begin next month and will be very close to the Equator line, although on the Southern hemisphere.

Unasur still has to decide who will succeed the deceased Argentine president whose unexpected death created an unexpected vacuum for the organization. The short list includes two hopefuls, current Venezuelan Electricity minister, and an expert in energy affairs, Ali Rodriguez and the former Colombian Deputy Foreign Affairs minister Maria Emma Mejía, International Law expert and head of an NGO that helps homeless children and refugees from the country’s long standing armed sedition conflict.

Ecuadorean Foreign Affairs minister Ricardo Patiño said that the legal charter and formal constitution of Unasur will help to ‘integrate’ the whole region not only politically but in the fields of ‘infrastructure, health, social inclusion and energy’. Unasur became formally and legally existent according to its charter following the approval of the initiative by at least nine Legislatives. Uruguay was precisely the ninth.

Unasur is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.