Weekly Report - 19 September 2013 (WR-13-37)

REGION | Paraguay ‘de-Mercosurises’. On 16 September Paraguay’s President Horacio Cartes and his Chilean counterpart Sebastián Piñera signed a new agreement aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investment. The deal was signed during Cartes’s two-day first official visit to Chile, his second State visit since he assumed power last month. It is a boon for Cartes, who is focused on rebuilding Paraguay’s relations with its regional neighbours, which were ruptured after the June 2012 impeachment of former president Fernando Lugo (2008-2012).