ANDEAN COMMUNITY SEEKS A STRONG REGIONAL FRONT

 
Growing concern over political instability in the Andean countries obscures the fact that the region is continuing to work toward regional integration. This trend has intensified in response to serious discussion about bringing the region into the Mercosur sphere. Highlighting the relations between the two regional groupings, the Andean Community has published the Statistical Analysis on Trade and Investment 1969-1999, which charts commercial and financial ties between Mercosur and the Andean countries. For the full text of the report, see http://www.comunidadandina.org/estadistica/sgdi242/sgdi242.htm

Also strengthening the Andean Community's stature in the region was the election of new leadership for its regional trade union movement, the Consejo Consultivo Laboral Andino. Its president for the 2000-2001 term will be Rodrigo Penso, a Venezuelan union leader. Venezuela also holds the presidency of the Andean Community itself, which is presided by President Hugo Chávez. The vice president of the labor body is Bruno Apaza Prudencio, of the Central Obrera Boliviana.

The institutional structure of the Andean Community has never been the glue to hold the region together. However, it should not be discounted in the economic and political jockeying that characterizes the Andean nations these days. With Chávez as its president and a sympathetic union leader as the head of the region's representative labor body, the Andean Community could prove to be an interesting vehicle for debate on issues affecting the region. Its weight is already visible in the OAS, where observers speculated that the efforts at integration between the Andean Community and Mercosur contributed to Brazil's reluctance to endorse a condemnation of the recent Peruvian elections.