Uruguay disagrees at Celac, attacks Mercosur and says that the defense of democracy is not just left-wing

If Brazil and Argentina arrived at the CELAC Summit in Buenos Aires this Tuesday afternoon (24) with aligned speeches on the need to combat the advance of the ultra-right, Luis Lacalle Pou’s Uruguay was left with the task of defusing the chorus of the happy.

To journalists, the center-right president said that it is necessary for neighboring nations to let the country “open up to the world” and said that this would be his main message to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) who, after visiting Argentina, go to Uruguay.

The Uruguayan was referring to free trade agreements that Montevideo is negotiating with countries like China and New Zealand, something that has been criticized by other Mercosur members. The Brazilian Chancellor, Mauro Vieira, for example, has already suggested that taking an idea like this off the ground would mean the destruction of the bloc.

Lacalle Pou criticized what he calls Mercosur’s protectionism and asked that the region’s leaders stop “complaining inwardly” and understand that it is necessary to advance in global integration.

In addition to messages to the Brazilian government, there were also hints to the government of Alberto Fernández in Argentina. The Uruguayan leader said, for example, that “it is not necessary to be leftist to defend democracy”, contradicting messages echoed by the Peronist and also by Lula in Buenos Aires.

Then, in reference to the comment of the Argentine Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, for whom Uruguay is a “little brother” that Brazil and Argentina should “take care of”, Lacalle Pou laughed and replied “Disneyland”, a way of defining the statement like childish.

Fernández himself adopted a speech similar to that of his minister. In a recent interview with Sheet, said that Uruguay “must understand that it must seek objectives as a partner of a region”. And he continued: “This is the role of smaller countries, while that of the larger ones is to deal with the asymmetries that exist, to remove obstacles for smaller countries.”

Lacalle Pou says he does not see Mercosur as an obstacle to his government’s attempts to independently negotiate trade pacts. In addition to the agreement with China, he also recently submitted an application for formal entry into the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement), formed by 11 countries in Asia and America, including Chile and Peru.

One of the main names against these negotiations is Fernandéz. Unlike his predecessor, Maurício Macri, he defends a more closed bloc — the Argentine and Uruguayan leaders staged a heated debate on the topic at the last Mercosur summit, last July.

Brazil had an ambivalent stance on the subject during the Bolsonaro government. But Lula, in his previous mandates, was a staunch defender of an integrated Mercosur, a stance that, as Mauro Vieira’s statements demonstrate, is still maintained today.

Questioned about the compatibility of the Uruguayan election with regard to Mercosur norms, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad (PT), one of the members of Lula’s entourage in Buenos Aires, replied that “that we will see tomorrow.”