
Combating the drugs and arms trade and traffic of people as well as a greater coordination of regional intelligence services are among the pillars in security affairs that Argentina, as chair of Mercosur in the first half of 2012 will be applying.

A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, in seventeen Latinamerican and Caribbean countries discovered an intense concentration and foreign-held land process.

The Bolivian government strongly rejected a statement from a FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organization) official saying that 26% of the population (2.5 million people) is on the hunger fringe since they can not satisfy their basic food needs.

By Lucius Lomax<br />
The idea of a rogue nation using peaceful nuclear technology for armaments has been explored extensively by both Hollywood and the United Nations. But the idea of acquiring nuclear power—under the pretext of military use—with the real intention of commercial development appears to be an original idea of the Brazil government.

Uruguay’s president of the Chamber of Industries, (CIU) Washington Burghi said that relations with Mercosur partners are becoming ever so complicated and if these problems are not addressed “we will be in serious trouble because the whole world is going through tough situations”.

Agriculture ministers from Mercosur full members plus Chile and Bolivia, as members of the Agriculture Council of the South, CAS, urged a quick conclusion of the World Trade Organization Doha Round negotiations to help combat poverty and ensure food security.

The World Bank approved last week a loan for 49 million dollars to support Uruguayan farmers in adopting environmentally sustainable practices to improve the resilience of their production systems in response to the effects of climate variability.

Paraguayan members from the Mercosur Parliament, Parlasur made a public statement to complain the ‘intimidating Brazilian military display’ with armoured vehicles and heavy equipment along the border particularly across from the Ciudad del Este which is ‘contrary to international agreements and the Mercosur spirit’.

The Mexican president underlined the strategic importance of Uruguay since it is the only Mercosur member that has a free trade agreement with Mexico, thus making it the ‘strategic partner’ of Mexico in Mercosur.

Uruguay received a huge political boost from Mexico (the same it was denied from its Mercosur partners under influence from Argentina) in its dispute with the recent G20 summit which through spokesperson French president Nicholas Sarkozy described Uruguay as a ‘fiscal haven’.