(14 April 2011) On Thursday, former Colombian Foreign Minister and current Secretary-General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), María Emma Mejía, visited the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, where she was welcomed by Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC Executive Secretary.
Ms. Mejía also met with ECLAC Directors and experts on poverty, social development and statistics.
During the visit, UNASUR and ECLAC (which promotes the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean) explored various options for working together.
UNASUR, which was created on 23 May 2008 in Brasilia, in an intergovernmental agency made up of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Ms. Mejía took office on 11 March 2011, following the death of the first UNASUR Secretary-General and former Argentine President, Néstor Kirchner, on 27 October 2010.
Any queries should be addressed to the ECLAC Public Information and Web Services Section.
E-mail: dpisantiago@cepal.org; telephone: (56 2) 210 2040/2149.