Natasha Niebieskikwiat
03/28/2021 3:41 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 03/28/2021 3:41 PM
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou instructed his Foreign Ministry to continue working with Mercosur partners to achieve a Mercosur relaxation agreement as soon as possible beyond Argentina's refusal and Alberto Fernández's counterattack on Saturday night.
This is what the Uruguayan president said to his inner circle, who this Sunday was with his family in the Anchorena presidential room, in Colonia, from where the weather allowed him a privileged view of Buenos Aires, especially the Puerto Madero area.
They are about 20 kilometers apart.
"It is there, by opening up to the world, where Uruguay and Mercosur should go. It is where the world is going. All the rest is part of the political paraphernalia
that does not concern me because I am not interested. Institutionality, "Lacalle Pou was heard saying among his highest collaborators after the media eagerly sought him out for a personal response to Alberto Fernández.
On the other hand, no one wanted to say if Fernández spoke with his friend Francisco Bustillo, the Uruguayan foreign minister, who in turn differs from him in the fact that he is an outspoken defender of free trade.
Clarín
had access to the privacy of the last statements of the Uruguayan president to his private circle.
Lacalle Pou is determined to move forward with his proposal to open Mercosur to the world.
And it is what interests you.
The Argentine president, on the other hand, surprised at the last minute on Saturday with new statements against his eastern counterpart.
"I think the Uruguayan president lost his temper. If anyone lost his temper in his speech, it was him. It seems very unkind for the shipmates to say that he is carrying a burden. And the burden is us, us Argentina, us, Brazil, we Paraguay. He says that being in Mercosur is carrying a burden, "he said in an interview with C5N.
The President referred to the clash he had with his Uruguayan colleague during the Mercosur summit.
In the virtual summit that Fernández held as president pro tempore of the bloc together with Lacalle Pou, Jair Bolsonaro, Mario Abdo Benítez (the quartet of full members) plus Luis Arce, from Bolivia, and Sebastián Piñera, from Chile (both associated countries),
Lacalle Pou complained without naming him that Fernández suspended the face-to-face meeting for the 30 years of Mercosur.
And in tune with his counterparts in Brazil and Paraguay, he assumed the toughest role in the face of Argentina's refusal to move towards making the customs union more flexible.
Mercosur "cannot be and should not be a burden," he said, adding that "they were not" willing in Uruguay "to be a corset in which our country cannot move."
That same Friday, at the end of the summit, Fernández took up the floor again and, furious, unexpectedly invited those who want to leave Mercosur to do so.
"We don't want to be anyone's burden. If we are a burden, let them take another boat. Ok?" He launched in an unexpected tone and in tune with the head of his government coalition, his vice president Cristina Kirchner.
The last crisis of the bloc took place between the former president and Dilma Rousseff and previously between the presidents Néstor Kirchner and the late Tabaré Vázquez due to the conflict of the pasteras.
Lacalle Pou's claim was also made by Vázquez and José "Pepe" Mujica to varying degrees.
On Saturday, Alberto F. redoubled the bet on television.
He said that Lacalle Pou - with whom he had smoothed out rough spots at a barbecue they held over the end of the year at Anchorena's ranch - had been "not very happy, not very polite."
He added:
"What strikes me is that they say that I was the thug. The speech was so unusually aggressive.
Bolsonaro spoke and was very careful with his words."
It is true that with the crisis that he is going through internally, the Brazilian was extremely discreet, but he asked for everything the same as the Uruguayan: to
open the external relations of the bloc and lower its external tariff.
In the new interview, Alberto F. said that Lacalle Pou said that Argentina was a burden and this Sunday the collaborators of the oriental said they were puzzled because that was not the meaning of his words on Friday.
"I do not do foreign policy thinking of benefiting Uruguay and humping others," they heard him say.
"Anyone who saw the speech can see what I said.
The ballast is the backpack of Mercosur, but look at how the world advanced in agreements on all sides and we continue not to advance,"
said President Lacalle Pou privately.
"The world is negotiating with each other and we are paying tariffs. And it is not that we want it to serve only Uruguay, it serves Argentina. We continue to pay tariffs and compete against Australia, New Zealand with our products, which are the same as them, but the difference is that they do not pay tariffs and we do, "Lacalle Pou explained this Sunday, while his team pointed out that the future of Mercosur
" should not be a Uruguayan issue but everyone's, although everyone has their opinion. "
Diplomats consulted in Brasilia and Montevideo assure that everyone knew what Lacalle Pou was going to propose,
who is working on a proposal to make Mercosur more flexible and who wants to work with Bolsonaro in the Brazilian presidency that begins in the middle of the year.
This translates into a proposal that can modify, or in some way circumvent, the regulations of the Southern Common Market that prohibit its four member countries from negotiating trade agreements with other countries outside the bloc if they do not decide together.
This has made it one of the most closed economic regions in the world in its thirty years of life -which happened precisely on Friday-, since it only had a complete free trade agreement with Israel years ago.
Not even the free agreement that was signed in 2019 with the European Union is going well, because the Europeans began to object, especially environmental issues.
On April 22 there will be a meeting of foreign ministers of the bloc called by Buenos Aires, but everyone recognizes today that it will see "how it continues" after the hurricane of Friday 26. In Argentina they remain firm in the more social idea of talking about "connect" instead of "flex."
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Cristina Kirchner already governs
After the crossing at the Mercosur summit, Alberto Fernández redoubled his criticism of Lacalle Pou: "He was unusually aggressive"