October 15, (LPAC)--Eight of South America's twelve nations have now agreed to found the Bank of the South, whose mission will be to serve as "a development bank with a South American character, with a central role in the framework of a new regional financial architecture."

As of today, only Chile, Peru, Guyana and Surinam have not joined. A high-level South American source intimately involved in the project reported today that the project to found the bank is advancing very well, and he noted that with President Alvaro Uribe's formal request on Oct. 12 that Colombia join, it is unlikely that Chile will continue holding out, either.

The project which international financier interests have sought to sabotage every which way since it was first proposed formally by Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last February, took an important step forward on Oct. 8, when Economics and Finance Ministers of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Oct. 8, agreed upon the text of a Founding Document for the new bank, which the Presidents are scheduled to sign on Nov. 3, in Caracas, Venezuela.

Many of the central issues of the substantive nature and functioning of the bank were left unresolved, and are still being fought out.