President Hugo Chávez expects Venezuela will be fully incorporated to Mercosur before Brazilian president Lula da Silva steps down from office next January first. The two leaders met Wednesday in Brasilia and also agreed to strengthen Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
Colombia’s Green party presidential candidate Antanas Mockus arrives for Wednesday’s night television debate as favourite following on his spectacular rise in public opinion polls.
Venezuela is an extremely important factor for the social and economic development of the region and Brazil will insist upon Paraguay on the need for the approval of Venezuela’s incorporation as full member of Mercosur, stressed Senator Romero Juca from the Brazilian ruling coalition.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez called for respect for the political and electoral system of Cuba that this Sunday was holding municipal elections among candidates from an only party.
Colombia’s leading presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos claimed that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is intent in interfering in his country’s electoral process that next May 30 will decide on the successor of President Alvaro Uribe.
Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chávez said “the new world requires a new logic to accept a new order of relationships” during a meeting held at the presidential palace of Miraflores in Caracas.
Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner called on Monday for the end to the Falklands/Malvinas “colonial enclave”, as she forecasted from Venezuela, standing as a privileged guest next to Hugo Chavez, that Latinamerica is in the process of a “second independence”.
Venezuela kicked off celebrations marking 200 years of struggle for independence with an impressive several hour long military parade. Recently-acquired Chinese K-8 planes and Russian Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft swooped through the sky during a lavish military parade in Caracas, as soldiers from Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Libya, Nicaragua and Russia joined those on the ground.
Delegates are gathering in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba for a grassroots alternative to last year's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen. The meeting will also celebrate the rights of Mother Earth on 22 April.