Former Argentine president and President of the Commission of Permanent Representatives of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), Eduardo Duhalde, proposed the creation of the "United States of South America" to concretize the idea of regional int egration.

In a conversation published Tuesday by Observa on its Website, Duhalde said a decisive step was taken in that direction at last Mercosur summit, which was held in Argentina.

"We have started to move along the path of the future integration of our republics," said the former president of Argentina.

According to Duhalde, the decision of creating what has already been dubbed as "the United States of South America" was developed by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay during the three-party talks held last week between Mercosur, the Andean Community (ANCOM) and Chile to advance the negotiations in the direction.

The association of Mexico and Venezuela to Mercosur, decided at the group's 26th summit closed last Thursday, constitutes an important step for a process that should not only stick to South America, but should cover all of Latin America and then the rest of the continent, Duhalde said.

Remembering the difficult advance in the road towards the South American integration from the moment of independence and evaluating the possibilities and advantages that would be presented to the countries of the region, Duhalde affirmed that the South American countries will be determined to change a long history of lack of coincidence.

The South American union will empower more and more countries to change an unfair international order, characterized by exclusion and violence and put forth a humanist view in the construction of a world community that is more just and equal, he added.

The union will also give South American countries a greater say economically.

"Definitely, we are the third largest economic bloc of the planet, behind the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement," Duhalde said.

Source: Xinhua