MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Cristina makes major castling on eve of Mercosur Summit
”Bolivian president Evo Morales and Governor Sergio Urribarri sport their national football teams' jerseys in a friendly match in Parana. Evo Morales, Governor Urribarri play football - New Intelligence boss appointed.
Foreign and economy ministers of the Mercosur countries gathered on Tuesday in the former Argentina capital Parana (now capital of the province of Entre Rios), in preparation for the 47th Mercosur Summit to be attended by all the Heads of State, which starts on Wednesday.
Argentina President Cristina Fernandez arrived in Parana late Tuesday evening, after swearing in Oscar Parrilli as the new head of the Secretary of Intelligence at the Pink House in Buenos Aires.
Parrilli, who had served as Secretary General for the Presidency since 2003 under President Nestor Kirchner, will be replaced by Senator Anibal Fernandez, who will consequently leave his seat in the Upper House to his fellow former Cabinet Chief Juan Manuel Abal Medina Jr, who was next in line in the 2011 senatorial elections ticket. At the time presidential spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro announced those changes on Tuesday afternoon, Abal Medina was representing the Argentina government in Parana, when he received a telephone call from his wife telling him the news.
The heads of state of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela and Bolivia are due in Parana by Wednesday morning. Bolivian President Evo Morales, instead, arrived in Parana even before his hostess and got together informally with Entre Rios Governor and presidential hopeful Sergio Urribarri to play some football.
Mercosur technicians have been in Parana in preparation for the meeting since last Saturday.
Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman praised Mercosur as one of the “most successful” integration processes and said it is “a cause of pride for member countries.”
Parana was the capital of the Argentine Confederation between March 24, 1854 and December 2, 1861, following the passing of the 1853 Constitution.
Argentina currently holds the pro-tempore presidency of Mercosur.
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Read all comments“the 47th Mercosur Summit ”
Dec 17th, 2014 - 04:31 am 0I challenge anyone to list 47 serious achievements of MercoSur.
well?
No, that does not include $100s of thousands, (millions?), spent on hotels, spas/saunas, hookers, cocaine, back-handers and private jets.
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What has MercoSur actually achieved in 47 summits that benefits the co-signatories of the original TRADE arrangement, not the political talking-shop it has become?
The only true beneficiaries are Swiss bankers and various dubious institutions in 'off-shore' funds.
The most recent 'member', Venenezuela, has US25 Billion in missing Public money...
Is MercorSur discussing this?
No, thought not...
hmmmm.....
Must be those bloody Stealth Penguins again, or the Evil Empire that Venezuela just can't stop doing business with...
umm....
You win... Name on benefit besides the unified Euro style license plate coming next year or so...
Dec 17th, 2014 - 10:15 am 0@1. I did think of that. 47 'Summits' in 23 years. The funny thing was that, while I was trying to find out what a 'Mercosur Summit' does or has achieved, I found innumerable references to other 'summits' that are mounted in latam. Curiously, they don't all, or always, attend. How come there's a 'summit' that is so unimportant that you don't bother? Incidentally, the only thing I found was at the 42nd Mercosur 'summit' where there was a draft resolution barring Falklands-flagged vessels from all regional ports. I don't think we'd want to count that as an 'achievement'.
Dec 17th, 2014 - 01:45 pm 0Forced to assume that these summits are jollies. And a chance for Timerman to open his gob!
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