Chile urged to be ‘counterbalance’ in Mercosur
CHILE should be encouraged to join the Mercosur trade bloc as a full member as a ‘counterbalance’ to the growing importance of Venezuela and Bolivia in the bloc, writes Rob Ward. According to several distinguished voices attending the Mercosur summit in Rio de Janeiro last week, the left-leaning governments of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia would be counterbalanced if Michelle Bachelet, the president of Chile, brought her more conservative regime fully into the Mercosur fold.