[NYTr] Colombia Seeks to Join Chavez's Bank of the South

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Bloomberg - October 12, 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atbKTHyZtT1Y

Colombian President Uribe Seeks Membership in Banco del Sur

By Steven Bodzin

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe today requested membership in Banco
del Sur, a regional development bank championed by Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez.

Uribe made the request before Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in Puerto Ballena, Colombia, today
at the opening of a gas pipeline connecting Puerto Ballenas, Colombia,
and Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Colombia plans to remain involved with other financial institutions,
Uribe said in remarks broadcast on state television, adding he has no
problem with the International Monetary Fund or the Inter-American
Development Bank.

The Banco del Sur was founded Oct. 8 by officials from Brazil,
Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela as a local
alternative to Washington-led lending.