The irrelevance of Mercosur

The reality is that Mercosur, a trade bloc that includes Paraguay, Uruguay and now Bolivia (formally admitted in Asunción) as well as Brazil, is no longer so important. Even the host, Santiago Peña of Paraguay, admitted that “Mercosur is clearly not going through its best moment.” Mr Milei has never formally met Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, whom he slags off as “corrupt” and a “communist” (Brazil’s supreme court quashed Lula’s conviction—and he is a socialist). But political incompatibilities go back further: Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former leader, and Alberto Fernández, Mr Milei’s Peronist predecessor, similarly shunned each other.