Castro steals show as Mercosur celebrates new member

Late in the night on Friday, Fidel Castro wound up a typical rambling three-hour speech at an "anti-imperialist" rally in the central Argentine city of Córdoba, delivered with such gusto that his health seemed far from failing.

Having dropped the suit and tie sported at the Mercosur presidential summit earlier in the day in favour of his customary olive-green fatigues, the Cuban leader's anti-US rhetoric was rivalled - if not in length - by a fiery warm-up address from his admirer, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

The outspoken duo stole the show at the meeting, which celebrated the addition of Venezuela to the trade bloc. Its original mem­bers are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Mr Castro's guest appearance, following a trade deal signed between Cuba and Mercosur, commanded generous media attention after being confirmed only at the eleventh hour.

"Sometimes I have to misinform even my own friends. Not even I knew I was going to come," he joked.

But the implications of Mr Chávez's status as the new arrival at Mercosur, which has prompted the group's formal support for Venezuela's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2007-2008, have also generated speculation on the direction the enlarged bloc will take.

Some commentators fear that Mr Chávez might hijack the group as it becomes less a trade organisation and more a political alliance, another forum for his tirades against the US.

In a light-hearted aside to President Néstor Kirchner of Argentina during the meeting, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil promised to ensure that Mr Chávez would "behave himself". But he preferred to emphasise, as strengthening Latin American integration became the recurrent theme of the meeting, his wish for a "Merco-­America" that would one day stretch from Mexico and Cuba to Patagonia.

Indeed, both Argentina and Brazil formally encouraged Bolivia to become the sixth full member of the group, while Mexico's foreign minister, Ernesto Derbez, said he hoped Mexico would become an associate member of the group - along with Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru - before Vicente Fox's presidency comes to an end in December.

Mercosur's leaders resolved to support other projects enhancing unity, including the "great gas pipeline of the south", which will run from Venezuela through Brazil to Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. They also backed the creation of a Mercosur development bank to finance infrastructure projects, and the founding of a parliament, which Mr da Silva said could happen by the end of the year.

Nevertheless, tensions inevitably simmered, in particular discontent among Mercosur's smaller members, Uruguay and Paraguay, who complain of poor access to Brazilian and Argentine markets. Although the group resolved to tackle those issues, Uruguay's finance minister, Danilo Astori, formally asked for permission to be able to make bilateral trade agreements independently of Mercosur.

President Nicanor Duarte Frutos of Paraguay complained of the "expropriation" of shared resources, interpreted as referring to the significant debt that Paraguay owes to both Brazil and Argentina for the massive hydroelectric projects it shares with both countries and for which he is seeking relief.

Kirchner’s visit to Paraguay last week saw a decision delayed over whether to pardon $5bn (€4bn, £2.7bn) of debt.