Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stressed once again the need to strengthen the so-called Caracas-Brasilia-Buenos Aires-Montevideo axis, claiming that he expected such a South American alliance to stretch from Mexico to the Patagonia, but warned that this project had to be pursued "step by step." Chávez explained that the present visit of Argentine President Néstor Kirchner to Venezuela is one of the first steps towards his South American alliance. Chávez thus plans to focus first on the Venezuela-Argentina axis and his country's joining the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), as published by El Universal newspaper.
