Marcos Chagas and Erica Santana
Special Report

Caracas (Venezuela) – As of now, Mercosul officially has five members. Venezuela joins the block at a critical moment. The smaller members, Paraguay and Uruguay, have called for more assistance in dealing with the enormous differences between their economies and those of the other larger members, Brazil and Argentina.

With Venezuela in the block, Mercosur will have 250 million inhabitants, an area of 12.7 million square kilometers and a GDP (Produto Interno Bruto) (PIB) of US$ 1 trillion, the equivalent of 76% of South America's total GDP.

Translation: Allen Bennett