Bolivia has been accepted as a new member of Mercosur at the summit of the South American trading bloc in Rio de Janeiro. “Our group will be even stronger with the accession of 12 million Bolivian brothers and sisters. Mercosur’s economic output will increase by $43 billion,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on Thursday on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “Bolivia is one of the fastest growing economies in the region and the world. Its territory has rich natural resources that pave the way for the energy transition,” Lula wrote. For example, the landlocked Sout…