Wednesday April 12, 2023 | 2:50 p.m.
President Alberto Fernández stated that Mercosur should tend to correct the asymmetries in Latin America and called for “moving from words to deeds” amid tensions within the regional bloc. He did it during the meeting that he had with former president José “Pepe” Mujica yesterday at Quinta de Olivos, and in the previous one to the bilateral that he will have with the current president Luis Lacalle Pou at the end of the month.
“We are here to move from words to deeds: the dream of an integrated Latin America must come true. Mercosur must work together to put an end to asymmetries and thus be able to guarantee a future of development and growth for all our peoples,” it was stated. He listens to the President say through a video recorded from the presidential residence that he shared on his networks.
The president’s publication occurs within the framework of the tense relationship between his administration and that of Lacalle Pou, the product of the Uruguayan’s constant intentions of wanting to make trade agreements outside the regional bloc, and after Uruguay requested entry into the Agreement Transpacific (CPTPP).
We meet to move from words to deeds: the dream of an integrated Latin America must come true.
He @mercosur it must work in unity to end the asymmetries and thus be able to guarantee a future of development and growth for all our peoples. pic.twitter.com/a225cXu6ey
– Alberto Fernandez (@alferdez) April 12, 2023
At the end of the exchange, Pepe Mujica asked to increase regional meetings and establish a Court to settle economic issues and to defend the interests of the bloc. “We have spent almost two centuries, each one cut off from their side, in a world that is shrinking and we have to, somehow, invent a way to get together a little more to be able to defend ourselves, because it is elementary,” the former president stated.
“We have a Human Rights Court in Latin America, but we don’t have a Court on economic issues, in order to defend our interests. And that’s because we don’t get together. For businesses to prosper and peoples to prosper, there must be a culture that supports it and we have to create it,” he continued.
Lastly, Alberto Fernández highlighted Mujica’s words and maintained that Mercosur must attend to the asymmetries of the member countries and work to complement the industries. “It’s the true way to work together and create value chains in the region, where we all win, not where some of us win and it weighs so much on others to be able to grow,” he stressed.
“That is the secret of what Pepe talks about and what I have often said that we must correct in Mercosur, the asymmetries. That is the common effort that we have to make and thus everything will be easier, the asymmetries will disappear and all we are going to have a better future”, concluded the head of state.
At the end of the month, with no date yet, Fernández and Lacalle Pou will hold a bilateral Summit to advance the complex relationship between the two nations. The meeting was scheduled by foreign ministers Santiago Cafiero and Francisco Bustillo during the Argentine minister’s visit to Uruguay in March.
