This was the reflection of sociologist Atilio Boron in interview with Contagio Radio of Colombia.

Boron also said the long postponed inclusion of Venezuela in Mercosur -due to Paraguay’s opposition under its right wing government, which even requested millions to allow Venezuela in- has many advantages both for the country and for the bloc. Mercosur is consolidating as an economic bloc in Latin America and the fifth global power. Meanwhile, Venezuela has the chance to achieve a greater level of industrialization.

Boron also said that Colombia’s entering to the bloc would be important as it would contribute to the bloc’s international position, despite the trade alliance expressed in the Free Trade Agreement with the US.

Venezuela’s entering to Mercosur was ratified in a special summit held by the bloc with the participation of Uruguayan president José Mujica, Argentinean president Cristina Fernández and Brazilian president Dilma Roussef plus Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez in Brazil’s capital Brasilia.

Chavez pointed out that from now on Venezuela’s active participation in Mercosur represents a defeat of the imperialistic plans for the sub-continent. Social movements in Brazil expressed their support to Venezuela’s becoming a full member of Mercosur in Brasilia, while the leaders were signing the agreement.

Boron wrote an article about this published on August 1 in Argentinean newspaper Página12, where he says “a key element of this new state should be, no doubt, the strengthening of the other aspects of Mercosur: the social, the labor, the educational ones, to mention those that have led to greater demands because of their absence. This will bring social movements and the grassroots a great chance to make their demands heard and to pressure the governments into adopting, without further delay, the necessary policies so that Mercosur will stop being an agreement thought to expand markets and reduce costs for big corporations, and becomes an integration project at the service of the peoples”.