"Our destiny is Mercosur," declared Hugo Chavez, last month. It may be unwise to hold Venezuela's president to everything he says in his weekly four-hour television show, but in this case Mr Chavez seems to mean it. At a presidential meeting taking place on December 8th and 9th in Montevideo, the countries that make up South America's putative common market-Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay-were expected to welcome oil-rich Venezuela as a fifth full member, though it will take months if not years for declaration to become reality.
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