Andean countries foresee
Venezuela’s prompt return to the
CAN, according to Freddy Ehlers
Lima, Sept. 5, 2007.- Andean
Community Secretary General Freddy
Ehlers stated that he was pleased
that all of the Andean countries
are in favor of Venezuela’s prompt
return to the CAN, thus paving the
way for that to happen.
At a press conference held today
at the headquarters of the Andean
organization, in Lima, Ehlers
reported that he will be talking
in the next few days with
high-level Venezuelan officials to
promote the dialogue announced by
President Hugo Chávez and accepted
by President Alvaro Uribe.
He noted that last Friday
President Hugo Chávez announced
his willingness to talk about
Venezuela’s possible return to the
CAN at a special meeting of Andean
Presidents. The President of
Colombia accepted this proposal,
which also enjoyed the endorsement
of the governments of Bolivia,
Ecuador and Peru.
Asked whether Venezuela would
return as a full Member or an
Associate of the CAN, Ehlers
answered that it all depends upon
the political will of the Heads of
State, but that the way has been
cleared for it.
He added that, personally, he
trusts that Venezuela will return
to the CAN as a full Member
because the Andean Community is
taking a different approach now.
In March of this year, the CAN
Ministers of Foreign Affairs and
of Trade, meeting in Lima, decided
to seek more integral integration
that places priority on social
matters, human development and
respect for the environment.
He explained that the term
“integral integration” reveals
that the Andean process is not
only trade-based, but basically
political and social. For that
reason, efforts made in those
areas in recent months have
resulted in, among other things,
the reactivation of the Working
Group on Indigenous Peoples, the
start-up of the Network of
Academic Institutions and Social
Organizations, and the convening
of the forthcoming International
Meeting on Climate Change in Latin
America, “Clima Latino,” scheduled
to take place this coming October
in Guayaquil and Quito.
