There are windows of opportunity to make progress in stalled diplomatic negotiations. But it is also important to seize the moment.

In December 2023, Brazil transfers the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur to Paraguay, and in the same month the deadline for concluding the agreement with the European Union expires.

For decades, different common currency projects have been conceived and proposed in Latin America. All of them have failed.

We Latin Americans have a vocation for integration. We have the intention, the spirit, the mechanisms, the institutions, we even have important and very admirable results in some areas. The only thing we lack is to effectively implement integration.

The cross of ideas between Fernández and Lacalle Pou ("freeing oneself from the corset" vs. "getting off the boat"), minor and anecdotal, will nevertheless be recorded as an episode that reflects the existing differences and their implications: an eventual fork in the road between the countries of the Southern Cone.

In the last decade Brazil has been losing regional protagonism and several presidents have tried to fill this void. All have failed. In the face of economic disintegration and political fragmentation in South America, Uruguay's president is trying to lead an agenda aimed at making Mercosur more flexible.