Mercosur about to sign a trade agreement with Cuba
By Tony Pagliaro
30.11.05 | There are more and more signals suggesting that the Southern Cone of Latin America is rapidly turning to the left. The latest one is the recent announcement that MERCOSUR is about to execute a special “Trade Agreement” with Cuba. Such announcement was made in Montevideo by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, who happens to be also the President of Uruguay’ s “Socialist Party”, Mr. Reinaldo Gargano. He did it together with his Cuban counterpart, Rafael Dausá who is visiting Uruguay.
Cuba owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Argentina and other members of MERCOSUR. This debt has been unpaid for decades, but this fact does not seem to be an obstacle for Latin creditors to continue dealing and trading with Fidel’s communist regime.
With the forthcoming incorporation of Venezuela as its newest member, MERCOSUR will -in all likelihood- rapidly sail away from the Free Trade proposals made by the US.
The referred to announcement came just days after Uruguay signed an “Investment Protection Agreement” with the US, which Mr. Gargano reluctantly had to execute himself.
Uruguay had broken relations with Cuba in 2002, when democratic Mr. Battle was President, but the incoming leftist Uruguayan government of Mr. Tabaré Vázquez has chosen to -immediately- rebuild all kind of bilateral relations with the Caribbean State. Uruguay exports milk products to Cuba and imports from Cuba chemical ones. Fidel is now, as expected, offering “medical cooperation” to Uruguay. If the Venezuelan experience is taken into account, soon Cuban “doctors” will be working politically in Uruguay.
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