– President Jagdeo to oversee inauguration ceremony slated for State House on May 9
HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday announced that His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo, performing the functions of Chairman of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) would be appointing the new Secretary General of the grouping on Monday, May 9.

At an inauguration ceremony slated for State House in Georgetown on that day, President Jagdeo will appoint and install Columbia’s former foreign Minister, Maria Emma Mejia, as Secretary General of  UNASUR.
Making the announcement at a news conference at Office of the President yesterday, Dr. Luncheon said: “Maria Emma Mejia would be sworn in for the first half of the two-year term; the second half would see former Venezuelan Minister of Energy Ari Rodriguez from Venezuela.” 
Ms Mejia a former Foreign Affairs official and an expert in International Law and social inclusion is scheduled to take office up until next April.
The other candidate for the job, Venezuela’s Ali Rodriguez, will complete the second half of the two-year mandate of the Secretary General.
Ms Mejнa has since thanked UNASUR members for naming her as the new Secretary General and underlined the significance of succeeding an emblematic figure such as the former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who last held the position of SG.
“I am most thankful to the eleven countries that unanimously have decided to re-establish, through the organization’s Secretariat, the replacement for a man that has proved so emblematic as was the former Argentine leader Nestor Kirchner”, said Ms Mejia in her first statements from Bogotб last month.
The decision to have the two candidates share the two year mandate sends a strong unity message and avoids a painful political confrontation between two neighbour countries that,  until a year ago, were undergoing a serious deterioration of bilateral relations.
Guyana assumed the chairmanship of UNASUR in November 2010, which President Jagdeo said was a demonstration of strengthening ties with Latin America.
UNASUR is a political and economic union that was formed on May 23, 2008 in Brazil with the aim of creating a South American integrated space in the political, social, economic, environmental and infrastructural spheres.
The Union comprises  12 South American Nations, namely, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. (Chevon Singh)