EFE Agency, Giovanna Ferullo
Porlamar (Venezuela), April 17, 2007

The newly-formed Union of South American Nations (Unasur) will be a political decision-making body that should coordinate actions with the region’s economic and trade bodies, the Secretary General of the Andean Community (CAN), Ecuadorian Freddy Ehlers, announced today.   

In an interview with Efe, the high-level Andean official expressed his satisfaction that the presidents gathered at the First South American Energy Summit had achieved the “essential” objectives of creating the “Union of South American Nations” and decided that the Permanent Secretariat of the organization would be “small and functional.” 

That Secretariat, which will be located in Quito, Ecuador, will be the body where all “major political decisions” will be made, but the Andean Community, Mercosur and ALADI bear all the responsibility for economic and trade matters and also in all of the social areas,” he stressed. 

Ehlers showed his optimism regarding the success of the new organization for regional policy coordination that will replace the South American Community of Nations. 

He also predicted that the “small and functional” structure of the Permanent Secretariat of Unasur would enable it to achieve the “titanic” objective of bringing about the necessary coordination to enable the integration process to “continue progressing.” 

"While the European Union has a staff of 30,000 in Brussels, you will be able to count the number of employees in the Quito (Unasur) Permanent Secretariat on the fingers of your hands, and there are less than 100 in the Mercosur and the CAN.  We must pool our meager forces because the task ahead is titanic,” he went on to add.  

Concerning Venezuela’s return to the CAN, Ehlers revealed that during the Energy Summit he had discussed the matter with Venezuelan President and Summit host, Hugo Chávez, who had assured him that his government “is considering the matter.” 

"We are hoping for Venezuela’s return in order to build up all of the South American integration bodies,” the CAN Secretary General explained. 

In April 2006, Chávez announced the withdrawal from the CAN of Venezuela, which had been a member since 1968, together with Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, because in his opinion that union “was finished” because of the Free Trade Agreement negotiations of the Colombian and Peruvian governments with the United States. 

Bolivian President Evo Morales has repeatedly urged his Venezuelan colleague to reconsider his decision and to return to the CAN, of which Venezuela and Colombia are the most important members because they account for more than 70 percent of Andean trade.