Dengue continues to claim lives in Latin America with over 400 deaths and nearly 161.000 infection cases according to this year’s reports from the different countries.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is returning to Cuba on Tuesday to continue treatment for cancer, raising new questions about his health just weeks after he won re-election to another six-year term.
Colombian ambassador Jorge Barrantes will be returning to his post in Asunción this weekend, the first Unasur country member to do so, according to Paraguayan Foreign minister Jose Fernandez Estigarribia. Chile is also expected to adopt a similar decision in the near future.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica has plans to meet two, probably three times before the end of the year with his peer from Venezuela, Hugo Chavez to address “a real integration” of Mercosur, not limited to trade, but at the same time admitting that Venezuela is rapidly becoming one of the main markets for Uruguayan exports.
Henrique Capriles, the runner-up in Venezuela’s recent presidential elections, commented on comparisons between Argentina’s and Venezuela’s governments in an article published on Sunday in an Argentine provincial newspaper.
Brazilian foreign minister Antonio Patriota is scheduled to meet on Thursday with his Venezuela peer Nicolas Maduro to discuss a bilateral and regional agenda which is expected to emphasize on current issues related to Mercosur, the coming December summit and Paraguay’s situation.
Brazil said it is hard to see Paraguay rejoining Mercosur and Unasur before next year’s presidential election. The two blocks suspended the landlocked country following the removal of Fernando Lugo last June and replacing him with President Federico Franco.
Uruguay’s tenure of Mercosur rotating chair will be advanced six months meaning that at the coming summit in December Brazil will hand over the next six-month responsibility to the administration of President Jose Mujica, thus skipping Paraguay which remains suspended from the South American trade group.
Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva said he believes it is time for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, recently re-elected for another six years, “to begin preparing his succession”
Venezuela’s expulsion of Paraguayan diplomats from Caracas, as a direct consequence of the ongoing conflict inside Mercosur has left Brazil with the challenge of recomposing relations inside the group ahead of Mercosur next summit in December which will be hosted by the administration of President Dilma Rousseff.