Mercosur trade summit opens with Cuba's Castro as guest

CORDOBA, Argentina
Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrived at a Mercosur trade summit, with his ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, attending as a member for the first time.
Castro, nearly 80, appeared in an olive military uniform at the door of a Cubana airliner.

Chavez arrived earlier at Argentina's second-largest city in the Andes foothills promising that "Mercosur will enter a new phase" raising "the banner of social concerns".

With all five Mercosur presidents politically left of center, the political moment "could not be more favorable for Castro's visit," an Argentine diplomat told AFP before the Cuban president's arrival was confirmed.

Castro, who turns 80 on August 13, rarely travels outside of Cuba. Cuba is not a Mercosur member, but he is expected to sign an agreement easing trade with the South American free-trade zone.

Chavez joined the presidents of Mercosur's founding members -- Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Paraguay's Nicanor Duarte and Uruguay's Tabare Vazquez -- along with Chavez, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Evo Morales of Bolivia, leaders of Mercosur's associate members.

Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez will also attend as an observer.

Castro last traveled to Argentina in 2003 for Kirchner's presidential inauguration. At the time he was the keynote speaker at a vast rally at the law faculty at the University of Buenos Aires.

Leftist militants here in Cordoba, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, plan a rally at the local university headlining Chavez, Morales and possibly Kirchner. They now hope that Castro will join the speakers.

But Castro's presence, still larger than life in Latin America, threatens to eclipse what was supposed to be the main event, Venezuela's first-time summit appearance as a full member.

Venezuela is the world's eighth largest oil producer and fifth largest oil exporter. It became the fifth Mercosur member at a special July 4 summit.

With its new member, the bloc now has a total population of more than 250 million people, a gross regional product of over one trillion dollars and regional trade surpassing 300 billion dollars.

Non-governmental organizations are on hand as well, hoping for a more sympathetic ear from the left-leaning heads of state.

"Within Mercosur we need a space to discuss our problems as do the heads of state and to have the right to participate in the design of public policy," said Gabriela Pereira, of the International Network of Environmental Clubs, operating in 28 countries.

Chavez said that Venezuela will be better off in Mercosur than in the Andean Community, and recently quit that trade bloc comprising Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Under the agreement granting Venezuela's membership, the Argentine and Brazilian markets will be open to Venezuela in 2010, while the more fragile markets of Uruguay and Paraguay will open in 2013. In turn, Mercosur partners would have access to Venezuela's market by 2012.

Morales, another leftist leader, is to meet privately with the leaders of Brazil, Argentina and Chile during the summit, his spokesman said in La Paz.

Morales will also lobby Chile's socialist president Bachelet, about ceding landlocked Bolivia access to the Pacific, which it lost in an 1879-1881 war to Chile.

He will also discuss possible natural gas exports to Mexico with Derbez, the spokesman said.

Morales, elected by a landslide in December, has an 81 percent popularity rating in Bolivia, while Argentina's Kirchner has 80 percent support and Venezuela's Chavez have 70 percent, according to Mexico's Consulta-Mitofsky pollsters, based on data from each country.

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay formed Mercosur in 1991 with the aim of creating a South American common market. Chile and Bolivia became associate members in 1996.