PRESIDENT MUJICA STRONGLY LOBBIES FOR VENEZUELA’S FULL INCORPORATION TO MERCOSUR

Montevideo, April 11- Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly supported the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur from a Sunday column published in one of Brazil’s most influential newspapers, Folha de Sao Paulo.

Mujica pointed out that the full presence of Venezuela would help reduce asymmetries between members and achieve a better balance inside the group.

“Venezuela is a compensatory element is economic and natural resources terms for all the River Plate, since they need what we produce. For that reason the inclusion of Venezuela in Mercosur would help to reduce existing differences”, wrote the Uruguayan president in Folha de Sao Paulo.

The incorporation of Venezuela as a full member of Mercosur still depends on a vote from the Paraguayan Congress that so far has not addressed the issue. Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo’s winning coalition has atomized and he does not count with the sufficient votes to have the initiative approved.

Mujica mentions that in the Paraguayan Senate there is certain resistance to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez but points out that “we must not confuse a country with a regime, governments have their time, but countries remain”.

Finally President Mujica goes further and promotes the incorporation to Mercosur of all South American countries since the possibilities of the integrated group currently made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are immense.

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