Venezuela became a full member of Mercosur at a summit of the South American regional trading bloc on Friday, while Bolivia took a first step toward joining.
Host country Brazil hailed Venezuela’s entry, which marked the group’s first enlargement since Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay founded it in 1991.
However, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did not attend. The firebrand leftist leader appeared in public for the first time in three weeks on Friday as he returned home from Cuba after his latest cancer-related medical treatment.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff hailed the decision by Bolivia, a Mercosur associate member along with Ecuador, to take the first step toward full membership.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said his country would decide early next year on whether to seek full membership amid concern about the impact integration might have on its dollar-based economy.
With the admission of Venezuela, which boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves, the bloc is now an energy and agricultural giant with a GDP of US$3.3 trillion (83 percent of that of South America) and a population of 275 million.
Bolivia and Ecuador would boost Mercosur’s population to nearly 300 million.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica meanwhile said the summit would mull whether to jump-start stalled negotiations on a free trade agreement with the EU.
Negotiations have stumbled over differences on agriculture — notably Europe’s subsidies to its farmers, which undermine South America’s efforts to sell its own products.
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, whose country is embroiled in a WTO dispute with the EU and the US, urged Mercosur to negotiate with Europe “as an equal.”
She accused the Europeans of hypocrisy for alleging Argentine protectionism while they themselves, she said, have been practicing it for decades.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
NASA on Thursday said that the long-delayed launch of Artemis 2, the first crewed flyby mission to the moon in more than 50 years, could come as soon as April 1. “We are on track for a launch as early as April 1, and we are working toward that date,” Lori Glaze, a senior NASA official, told a news conference, after technical difficulties delayed a launch originally expected last month. “It’s a test flight, and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” she said. “Just keep in mind we still have work” to do. The US space
RSS