South American University?

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Ever since Simon Bolívar (aka The Liberator) and his allies freed South America from Spanish rule in the 1820s, various politicians have dreamed of uniting the continent under a single economic or political system.

The idea of forming a kind of United States of South America, akin to the European Union, resulted in the founding of the Mercosur trade bloc in 1991.

Now the leaders of two countries of the so-called Southern Cone, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, are taking a step toward educational integration of the continent by kicking around the idea of a South American university.

‘For a long time I have dreamt of constructing a Mercosur university, but I don’t think that is enough,’ a story in the Santiago Times of Chile quotes Lula as saying. ‘We need to create various universities so that our young people can freely travel up and down the continent.’ But La Plaza wonders: Will classes be in Spanish, Portuguese or both?

Posted by Reed Johnson in Mexico City