Andean Community nations urge Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina to join the bloc

The presidents of the Andean Community nations—Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia—are asking Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina to join the group as the country’s politics steers left, reported Reuters.  

"If we manage to integrate Chile, Venezuela, and Argentina...I think this would significantly change things and our voice would be heard much more clearly on the world stage," Colombian President Gustavo Petro said.

Petro, along with Peruvian President Pedro Castillo and Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, met in Lima on Monday to pass the bloc’s presidency from Ecuador to Peru.

The desire to expand the Andean Community, comes as the politics of South America has shifted towards the left, according to the group.

In the last two years, left-wing governments have risen to power in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Chile, leaving Lasso’s right-winged government in Ecuador as the only outlier of the group.

Venezuela and Chile have previously been part of the Andean Community. However, Venezuela left in the early 2000s under the regime of Hugo Chavez. Similarly, Chile left in 1976 during the right-wing government of Augusto Pinochet.

Argentina has never been a member of the bloc.

"I would like to express the importance it would have for the Andean Community, and the benefits for its members, to have Chile and Venezuela rejoin," Peruvian President Pedro Castillo said at the event.

"And why not think about a sub-regional integration around the idea of the Andean fatherland that includes our sister Republic of Argentina, with which we share not just the Andes but also a shared heritage," Castillo added.