Discurso del Presidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Luis Arce Catacora en la, Sesión Plenaria, de la 63° Cumbre de Jefes de Estado MERCOSUR
Muchísimas gracias, muy bunas tardes a todas y todos.
Quiero saludar al hermano, Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva, presidente de la República Federativa de Brasil.
Saludamos al hermano Santiago Peña, presidente de la República del Paraguay.
Al hermano Luis Lacalle, presidente de la hermana República de Uruguay.
A todos los hermanos cancilleres, ministros de economía, representantes ante MERCOSUR.
Saludamos a la hermana Dilma Rouseff, presidenta del Banco de los BRICS que nos acompaña.
A todos los invitados especiales y representantes de organismos internacionales.
Coincidimos que lo de la mañana ha sido bastante productivo en tema de la reunión de lo que se habló, simplemente nosotros tomamos el micrófono para agradecer una vez más a todos los países miembros, a la hermana República de Argentina que no nos acompaña en este momento, el presidente Alberto Fernández, y agradecer a todos ustedes por la aprobación del ingreso de nuestro país al MERCOSUR.
Estamos convencidos que la integración es el mejor camino para nuestros pueblo para fortalecer y para lograr el mayor desarrollo que es lo que requieren nuestros pueblos.
Estamos seguros también que nuestra posición privilegiada que tenemos en el corazón de Sudamérica hace que seamos la bisagra entre el acuerdo de Cartagena o la Comunidad Andina con el MERCOSUR, estamos convencidos de que eso puede mejorar aún más las relaciones en la región y también nosotros queremos manifestar que nuestro país hará todos los caminos que sean necesarios, todos los procedimientos que establezca nuestra Constitución y que establezcan las leyes bolivianas para que a la brevedad posible podamos tener el documento aprobado en nuestro país y entregado al Presidente Pro Tempore como establece los estatutos del MERCOSUR.
Estamos convencidos de que si caminamos juntos todos los países vamos a poder llegar más rápidamente a la meta, unidos somos mucho más fuertes y simplemente agradecer el esfuerzo del compañero Luis Inácio Lula Da Silva, en su campaña, cuando estuvo en campaña cuando lo visite en Sau Paulo y me dijo que iba a hacer todo lo que estaba en sus manos para que Bolivia ingrese al MERCOSUR, ha cumplido su palabra compañero Lula, muchas gracias el pueblo boliviano se lo agradece a usted y a todos los países y esperamos seguir construyendo una MERCOSUR más fuerte.
Muchísimas gracias.
Speech By The President Of The Plurinational State Of Bolivia, Luis Arce Catacora, In The 64th Summit Of Heads Of State Of Mercosur And Associated States
Thank you very much, brother, Santiago Peña.
Thank you very much.
We wish to greet all the brother presidents who are here at this important event, headed by you, brother Santiago Peña, president of the sister Republic of Paraguay.
We greet our brother Luiz Inácio Da Silva, president of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
Our namesake brother Luis Lacalle, president of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
We also want to extend a special greeting to our Brother José Manuel Molino, President of the Republic of Panama.
To all foreign ministers, ministers, permanent representatives to MERCOSUR, special guests and representatives of international organizations.
It is an honour for us to address you at this sixty-fourth Summit of Heads of State of MERCOSUR and Associated States and to express on behalf of the Bolivian people our gratitude for the hospitality and warmth with which we have been received in the sister Republic of Paraguay.
We meet today to celebrate as Bolivians an event that will mark a historic milestone for the full development of our country.
We have just ratified the Law for the Accession Protocol of Bolivia to the Southern Common Market. This has been a long process that has gone through all the corresponding levels of approval and legal consultations since we expressed our will to join in 2006, in the first year of the installation of the Indigenous and Popular Government of Bolivia.
There are many benefits that Bolivia will obtain with full membership, in addition to reaffirm our identity as South Americans, we can also increase economic, cultural and commercial exchange and reinforce regional integration.
Joining this regional organization will allow us to reaffirm ourselves as a hinge of integration, as a country to coordinate and reconcile the actions related to the Andean community of nations and MERCOSUR. To think that they are incompatible is an erroneous interpretation of the challenges of the 21st century that it imposes on the region and on our America in general.
Bolivia comes to MERCOSUR with the firm intention to contribute actively to the development and strengthening of our regional bloc.
We are committed to work together for trade, investment and cooperation in strategic areas, our accession also reinforces our conviction that regional integration is the key to build a prosperous and peaceful future as well as social justice for all our people, together we can overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities presented to us by building a more united and supportive South America.
Our entry will allow us to have the right to vote, which means the possibility of making decisions for the development of the region that are accurate to our productive structure and to the challenges that we identify as a country. There is no doubt that the incorporation of Bolivia into MERCOSUR, which represents more than 82% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of South America as a total, is beneficial mainly in two directions.
On one hand, it boosts our development based on the support of the bloc’s markets; this interrelation, based on the recognition of existing asymmetries and the complementarity of our productive and trade potential, will put favorable pressure on behalf of our development.
On the other hand, Bolivia offers the implementation of the productive social-community economic model that has kept us as one of the countries with economic growth and low inflation rate despite the post-pandemic conditions.
Likewise, the use of our strategic natural resources such as lithium, among others, constitutes an opportunity for the use of this wealth and the Bolivian industrialization process to be the first to benefit in the region within the framework of technological and commercial complementarity, which will benefit everyone, respecting sovereignty and adjusting asymmetries.
In addition to our firm commitment to the sustainability of social justice, our accession to MERCOSUR puts us in a position to work to deepen integration in our region on the basis of political diversity and plurality.
We have to be able to move forward with integration in the region by respecting the political system and the type of governments that sovereignly elect; when I say this, I am referring to the sovereign integration that Bolivar dreamed of, based on the principles of solidarity between people, a unification of our countries that will also allow a dignified, peaceful and harmonious life that will bring happiness to our people.
As MERCOSUR, we also have the obligation to create favorable conditions to articulate our efforts not only within the Latin American and Caribbean region, but also to play an important role in the inevitable and irreversible configuration of a new multipolar world order.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank each of the MERCOSUR member states for their support and commitment to the incorporation of Bolivia as a full member of this integration organization.
I cannot close this intervention without thanking most of the countries of the region for their solidarity with the Bolivian people and its government ahead of the attempted military coup d’état on 26 June.
The menace of shortening my mandate by whatever means has not disappeared, nor has the determination of our people and its government to defend democracy and the democratic and cultural revolution, in this sense I would like to express my deepest special thanks to the MERCOSUR countries that have demonstrated its posture against the coup d’état and to the International Community for its unbreakable support in those difficult times.
Your solidarity was fundamental to maintain and avoid the rupture of the constitutional order, we regret unfounded and unserious statements about an alleged self-coup when unfortunately it was clearly a coup d’état that not only had the participation of military personnel, but of former military personnel who participated in the coup d’état of 2019 and civilians who are being investigated in the framework of due process, in the justice system.
Today we are taking one of the most important steps in our path to industrialization on the horizon of Bolivia’s Bicentennial, we congratulate President Peña for the Pro Tempore Presidency that concludes and wish the greatest success to President Luis Lacalle in this new Pro Tempore Presidency of MERCOSUR administration.
Today we reaffirm our integrationist vocation.
Long live to sovereign integration!
Long live to MERCOSUR!
Thank you very much.
