Venezuela becomes full member of Mercosur

The incorporation of Venezuela into the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) is a historic step in the economic integration of Latin America. Venezuela was upgraded from associate to full member at Mercosur’s 29th summit meeting, held on Dec. 8-9 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Mercosur’s four founding members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Its associate members include Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The inclusion of Venezuela comes one month after its president, Hugo Chávez, brought a shovel to the Third Summit of the Americas at Mar del Plata, Argentina, to symbolically bury the U.S.-proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Chávez was joined by the representatives of Mercosur and Cuba in a vote that defeated this attempt to extend imperialist trade agreements to the whole Western Hemisphere. The U.S. and Canada, with Mexico as their lap dog in NAFTA, have used trade agreements to impoverish the producing countries’ working people while enriching the importing countries’ transnational corporations.

The defeat of the FTAA and Venezuela’s acquiring full-member status in Mercosur are due in part to the success of the Bolivarian Revolution and “to a large part, [to Brazilian] President Lula da Silva,” said President Chávez to a TeleSur correspondent in Montevideo, “because he played a key role for us to be included.”

Meanwhile, Washington continues to discredit itself with every unilateral and undemocratic attempt it makes to alienate Venezuela and overthrow its popularly elected leader. The neoliberal policies it has imposed on Latin America have undermined attempts to eradicate pover ty, illiteracy, bigotry and racism in the area.

In a giant step for the region, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela have signed an agreement to complete a gigantic gas-petroleum pipeline within five years. This agreement, based on cooperation and inte gration of the region instead of an imperialist-imposed FTAA, is part of the Venezuelan-initiated Bolivarian Alter native for the Americas (ALBA). President Chávez says that “not only is this historic but we, the heads of state, are responsible for the demands set upon us” to make sure it benefits the 367 million people in the region.

Cuba’s press agency, Prensa Latina, explains, “This pipeline would run from Venezuela over Brazilian territory to Manaos in the north and then to the northeast, continuing to the south of Brazil, Buenos Aires and Montevideo.”

The pipeline would extend to between 4,969 and 6,211 miles long and cost up to $10 billion.

This new trade bloc now represents member nations with more than $1.3 trillion in gross domestic product, and associated nations with $2.1 trillion GDP. With Venezuela’s oil reserves, it will be the third most important economic and geopolitical trading bloc in the world.

Venezuela is now the only South Amer ican country with full membership in both the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and Mercosur. These two trade blocs are expected to be fully integrated by 2007, bringing the entire continent into the South American Community of Nations (CSN)—another step to fulfilling the dream of Simón Bolívar, who in the 19th century tried to liberate the continent from colonial rule. When completed, the CSN would have a GDP of over $2.6 trillion and encompass 367 million inhabitants.

During the course of the Mercosur summit meeting, Chinese Minister of Construction Wang Guangtao said in a speech that China wants to broaden and deepen bilateral cooperation with Mer cosur member states. (Xinhua, Dec. 11)