Paraguay and Venezuela presidents Horacio Cartes and Nicolas Maduro met on Friday for over half an hour following the mediation of Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff during the Unasur summit taking place in Paramaribo, Suriname. The meeting was made official by the Paraguayan presidency office and twits from the Planalto Palace, seat of the Brazilian executive.
Unasur leaders will welcome Paraguay’s return to the group and will honour the memory of deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez during this week’s summit in Suriname that will be taking the chair of the group from Peru.
Uruguay and Argentina presidents Jose Mujica and Cristina Fernandez seem to have ironed out differences, at least in public and in the pictures, during the inauguration of a gasoline and diesel de-sulphuring plant in Montevideo, which was financed with Venezuelan funds and Argentine technology.
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro appointed the third central bank president this year as Latin America’s biggest oil exporter seeks to rein in the fastest inflation among the world’s major economies.
Ecuador regrets that Paraguay has not invited Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro (who is also currently president of Mercosur) to the inauguration of president Horacio Cartes next Thursday, 15 August, said Ecuadorean foreign minister Ricardo Patiño,
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Monday compared Hugo Chavez to Christ and said that the late president, just like Jesus, came to protect those who had nothing, in a tribute to the fallen leader on the fifth month anniversary of his death.
Venezuela is becoming a rough environment for those dissenting with the Bolivarian revolution: in the last few hours a leading Venezuelan opposition was killed and on Monday media group announced the suspension of activities following the freezing of bank accounts and arrest of the owner and publisher.
New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met in Tehran on Sunday with Cuban Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas and said his country wanted to expand its relations with Latin America, “especially with Cuba,” Iran's Isna news agency reported.<br />
Cabrisas traveled to Iran for Rouhani's inauguration on Sunday.
Following on the steps of the IMF (and World Bank) which has strongly questioned Argentine official stats (mainly inflation and GDP growth), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Eclac, also joined the club of disbelievers since in its last report on the regional economy appealed to other stats’ sources.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos on Monday agreed to turn the page on a diplomatic dispute triggered when Santos met with Venezuela's main opposition leader in May.