MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay accuses Argentina of violating Mercosur cultural accords by demanding work visas for artists

The Argentine measure is clearly contradictory with Mercosur purpose of promoting cultural exchanges, said Achugar

Uruguay’s Director of Culture, Hugo Achugar accused Argentina of violating Mercosur cultural accords from the moment it is demanding work visas for Uruguayan artists performing in Argentina.

“The measure imposed is not understandable since freedom of circulation for cultural affairs and artists among Mercosur members is part of the charter and other agreements”, said Achugar, adding “it is clearly contradictory with what has been happening for the last then years that has been oriented to promote cultural exchanges among Mercosur members” (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela).

“Mercosur among its objectives must advance towards a greater cultural cooperation among its members, favouring the spreading of cultural and artistic expressions from the bloc as well as promote cultural cooperation at regional level” according to the Mercosur Culture website.

Under the Argentine system each person must pay the equivalent of 100 dollars to obtain the work visa, as is now requested from Uruguayan artists. And despite not having been informed of the regulation “some of them have been fined 1.000 dollars per person”, said Achugar.

“This happened to the Uruguayan rock bank ‘El Cuarteto de Nos’ which had to pay that sum for each of its members”, he added. Apparently the law has been in force for years but had never been applied on Uruguayan artists, which means it could become extensive to other Uruguayan workers in other sectors of the Argentine economy.

Finally Achugar said that the Uruguayan foreign ministry was looking into the matter.