EU-DIGEST

Brazilian agribusiness leaders are blaming Argentine government policies for delays in concluding a free trade deal with the European Union -- an accusation has come from Brussels as well.

EU negotiators reported frustration in attempts to advance negotiations that both sides see as timely, leading to a deal that will benefit both sides.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for EU-Latin America free trade talks. A free trade deal with Latin America's largest trade bloc, Mercosur, is seen in Brussels as a potential way out of recession for some of the EU's hard-pressed economies.

Mercosur's impressive demographics and cumulative growth figures are strong stimulants for EU nations seeking new business opportunities. The region has a population of about 276 million and total earnings of $3.47 trillion. An average per capita income of $12,599 translates into a burgeoning consumer market with unrivaled potential, analysts said.

Mercosur founding members are: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay. Venezuela, Associate Member since 2008, became a full member in July 2012. Bolivia and Chile are associate members and Colombia, Ecuador and Peru want to join.

Paraguay's membership is suspended because of Mercosur diplomatic wrangles over a June 2012 government change the regional bloc denounced as a coup. Other regional organizations including the Organization of American States in Washington, disagree over Mercosur's diplomatic isolation of Paraguay.

Brazil blames Argentina for delays in EU free trade accord - UPI.com

Bolivia accused Austria of "kidnapping" its president, Evo Morales, on Wednesday after authorities searched his plane during a stop-over in Vienna on suspicion he was taking fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden to Latin America.

A senior Bolivian diplomat said the Austrians had acted at the bidding of the United States, which has been trying to get its hands on Snowden since he revealed details of its secret surveillance programs last month.

"We're talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped," Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Sacha Llorenti Soliz, told reporters in Geneva.

The Bolivian plane, which was bringing Morales home from an energy conference in Moscow, was stranded at Vienna airport for several hours after Portugal and France refused to allow it to fly through their airspace.

The search found that Snowden was not onboard and the plane eventually left Vienna about noon on Wednesday.

Read more: Austrian plane search for leaker Snowden enrages Bolivia | Reuters

Gone from Bolivia....

McDonald's happy image and its golden arches aren't the gateway to bliss in Bolivia. This South American country isn't falling for the barrage of advertising and fast food cooking methods that so easily engulfed many countries.

Bolivians simply don't trust food prepared in such little time. The quick and easy, mass production method of fast food actually turns Bolivians off altogether. Sixty percent of Bolivians are an indigenous population who generally don't find it worth their health or money to set foot in a McDonald's.

Despite its economically friendly fast food prices, McDonald's couldn't coax enough of the indigenous population of Bolivia to eat their BigMacs, McNuggets or McRibs.

So they left Bolivia.

The McDonald's impact and its departure from Bolivia was so lasting and important, that marketing managers immediately filmed a documentary called, "Why McDonalds's went broke in Bolivia."

Read more: McDonald's closing all restaurants in Bolivia as nation rejects fast food

President Evo Morales said Wednesday he is expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development from Bolivia for allegedly seeking to undermine his leftist government, and complained about the U.S. secretary of state calling the Western Hemisphere the “back yard” of Washington.

Morales did not specify what USAID had done that merited expulsion, but the ABI state news agency said it was “accused of alleged political interference in peasant unions and other social organizations.”

In the past, Morales has accused USAID of funding groups that have opposed his policies, including a lowlands indigenous federation that organized protests against a Morales-backed highway through the TIPNIS rain forest preserve.

In 2008, Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador and agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for allegedly inciting the opposition.

As U.S.-Bolivian relations soured and Washington canceled trade preferences, total U.S. foreign aid to the poor, landlocked South American country has dropped from $100 million in 2008 to $28 million last year, with counternarcotics and security aid set to virtually disappear in the coming fiscal year. With Colombia and Peru, Bolivia is one of the world’s three major cocaine-producing nations.

Kerry said in April 17 testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee that “the Western Hemisphere is our back yard. It’s critical to us.” He was discussing perceptions in the region that the United States ignores it.

Many Latin Americans, leftists in particular, are sensitive to any U.S. statements that could imply hegemonistic designs, especially in light of Washington’s 20th-century history of backing repressive governments in the Americas.

Read more: Washington Post