Bolivian president Evo Morales subscribed on Friday the Mercosur incorporation protocol which makes it the sixth member of the regional group. The event took place in Brasilia during the Mercosur summit hosted by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.
The incorporation of Bolivia to Mercosur must not become a “straight jacket” that leaves the country with no margin to negotiate trade agreements with other regions, said the private business organization, Bolivia Foreign Trade Institution, IBCE
Paraguay must continue suspended from Mercosur following the group’s presidential summit on Friday, anticipated the head of the Latin American desk from the Brazilian Foreign ministry, Antonio Jose Ferreira Simoes.
Bolivia will announce to its peers at the Mercosur summit in Brasilia, later this week that it is willing to adhere to the trade block as a full member, reported Amanda Dávila, Communications minister.
The Mercosur summit which meets this week, December 6/7 in Brasilia is scheduled to debate the incorporation of Ecuador and Bolivia to the regional block which earlier this year, after waiting since 2006 finally integrated Venezuela as full member.
Foreign minister David Choquehuanca argued that Bolivia can become a full member of Mercosur and continue with the Community of Andean Nations, CAN, and can’t be forced to abandon a block to join another.
Bolivia was formally invited to join Mercosur as a full member for which negotiations can begin in the coming summit December 7 in Brasilia. The invitation was made official by Mercosur High Commissioner Ivan Ramalho during a visit to La Paz where the met with Foreign minister David Choquehuanca and Economy and Planning ministers Luis Arce and Viviana Caro.
Bolivia asked visiting Oscar-winner Sean Penn Tuesday to help lobby for La Paz to regain a bit of Pacific coast, and escape the ranks of landlocked states. Evo Morales, the populist president of the arid nation high in the Andes, asked the US actor to help its campaign to press Chile to overhaul treaties that ended a 19th-century war that cost Bolivia its coast and gave the land to Chile.
Bolivia returned on Monday to global credit markets for the first time in almost a century with the launch of 500 million worth of 10-year bonds, reflecting investors' confidence.
By Jimmy Burns(*) - The colonial church of San Francisco in La Paz, founded in 1548, is a beautifully textured mixture of Christian imagery and Indian mythology. The facade and ceiling mixes in saints, Christs and Virgins with tropical birds, reptiles, and sweet corn.