“We have fought so hard to be part of MERCOSUR, but just as we have this possibility, it fails to materialize due to a group of irresponsible people, particularly from the Chamber of Deputies,” Aipi stated.

The bill for ratifying Bolivia’s Accession Protocol to the bloc was submitted in December 2023 to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP); however, it has not been considered by the lower house.

Ajpi believes that the prompt approval of the accession is difficult because “the Chamber of Deputies is in another fight, very unrelated to the national reality,” and lamented that “now we are going to have to wait for another assembly (of the bloc), they say it is in December, we will be inactive until December.”

Supranational deputy Adolfo Mendoza spoke in the same vein, expressing concern about the repeated failures for the law to be approved.

In Mendoza’s opinion, the highest authorities of the Chamber of Deputies and the ALP are responsible for guaranteeing this regulation before the visit that the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will make to Bolivia next July.

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