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Argentina
determined to have Cuba in Mercosur
MercoPress.
Uruguay, Wednesday, 05 November.
Argentina will pressure Mercosur partner
Uruguay to drop its "intransigent"
opposition to the idea of offering Cuba
membership in the regional trade block,
according to Argentine ambassador in Havana
Raul Taleb.
Earlier in the day Argentine Foreign Affairs
Secretary Rafael Bielsa confirmed that "we
(Argentina and Brazil) put forward the Cuban
proposal but there's a member who is in
disagreement so we still have to work on
the hypothesis".
Ambassador Taleb was more explicit and
said that the Argentine government would
work to "persuade Uruguay to rise to
the circumstance", since integrating
Cuba to Latinamerica "means acknowledging
reality; the worst thing we could do is
isolate Cuba".
Since taking office this year, Argentine
and Brazilian presidents Nestor Kirchner
and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have vigorously
sponsored closer ties with Cuba. Mr. Kirchner
in particular has made it a point to revert
Argentina's chilly policy towards Fidel
Castro, in spite of the fact that the Cuban
leader is at odds with his Uruguayan counterpart,
Jorge Batlle.
Last week Batlle said Cuba's lack of a
democratic government made it "impossible"
to contemplate any type of Mercosur membership
for Havana.
Uruguay and Cuba broke off diplomatic relations
after Mr. Castro called Mr. Batlle a "foolish
clown" and "US boot-licker"
for having sponsored a UN resolution condemning
Cuba's human rights track record.
Mr. Bielsa has repeatedly stated he will
do everything in his power to see Cuba integrated
to the trade block in the first half of
the coming year. President Kirchner is scheduled
to visit Cuba in 2004.
"Cuba is no threat to the United States
or to any country in the world" and
its integration into regional bodies could
help counter the effects of the US embargo
against the island said Ambassador Taleb,
who anticipated the anachronistic embargo
would "soon be lifted".
Actually this Tuesday the United Nations
General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for
an end to the United States' 40-year-old
economic embargo against Cuba.
The vote marks the 12th consecutive year
that the Assembly has called for an end
to the blockade. Only three nations voted
against the motion, the US, Israel and the
Marshall Islands with two countries abstaining.
"The blockade is a cruel and absurd
policy that finds no support within or outside
the United States," Cuban Foreign Minister
Perez Roque said.
"The blockade is the main obstacle
to Cuba's social and economic development
and has caused losses to our country of
over 72 billion US dollars", added
Mr. Pérez Roque.
In a rare display of sincerity for an ambassador,
Mr. Taleb went even further and stated that
the leaders of "Argentina, Cuba, Brazil
and Venezuela are as the four legs of a
table on which it should be possible to
discuss Latin America's problems on a continental
basis (vis a vis the US) ".
MERCOPRESS is a news
agency concentrating in Mercosur countries
which operates from Montevideo, Uruguay,
and includes in its area of influence the
South Atlantic and insular territories.
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