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Weekly Report - 15 December 2011 (WR-11-50)

Unasur tables big infrastructure projects

The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) is planning several huge infrastructure projects to integrate the region, at a cost of some US$13.7bn, by 2022. The secretary general of Unasur, María Emma Mejía, said that it would attract financing from multilateral lenders for the projects, the biggest of which is a road network linking Caracas, Bogotá, Buenaventura and Quito, which is projected to cost US$3.35bn.

Several political commentators are drawing parallels between the 12-member Unasur, which is quietly pursuing projects to integrate the region, and the more unwieldy 33-nation Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which, during its launch earlier this month, spent a disproportionate amount of time debating whether it should seek to replace the traditionally US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) rather than setting tangible objectives for improved integration [WR-11-49]. This is true but it is slightly harsh. Unasur, after all, produced a constitutive treaty in May 2008, but it was only this week that the twelfth member, Colombia, ratified it. Still, in the meantime, Unasur has been moving swiftly on integration projects.

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