MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay not returning to Mercosur under current circumstances: demands compliance with rule of the law

President-elect Cartes pledged ‘no trampling with Paraguay’s dignity’

Suspended Paraguay will not return to Mercosur trampling on the institutions of the country or from the group, warned president-elect Horacio Cartes during an event at the Paraguay-US Chamber of Commerce. He emphasized that if there is no respect or abidance by the rule of the law, “we will remain as we are”.

Asked specifically when suspended Paraguay will return as an active member of Mercosur, Cartes said that he has been repeatedly advised “we must abandon Mercosur, recall the Triple Alliance war (1865/70), but gentlemen things don’t work out that way: our great tool is dialogue and make sure Paraguay takes advantage of the good opportunities”.

A year ago following a clash between landless peasants and police forces which left 17 people killed, the Paraguayan congress impeached and removed from office Fernando Lugo. The almost unanimous vote was even accepted by removed Lugo who was replaced by President Federico Franco. But Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) called it a ‘congressional coup’ and suspended Paraguay until the following legitimate presidential election which effectively took place last 21 April.

The coming Mercosur summit in Montevideo announced for 12 July is prepared to reincorporate Paraguay as active full member, but the Paraguayan outgoing and incoming administrations (next August 15) have said that first the country’s dignity, rule of the law and international law must be respected. This is because not only did Mercosur disregard the sovereign impeachment result, but also taking advantage of Paraguay’s suspension the other three members in a political decision agreed to incorporate Venezuela as full member, a request which was on hold for years because of the Paraguayan Senate refusal to accept former president Hugo Chavez in the group.

Cartes recalled that during the electoral campaign he promised maximum efforts to ensure the active incorporation of Paraguay to Mercosur and Unasur, because we need to be in “but never trampling the rule of law or Paraguay’s dignity”.

The president elect then underlined the unconditional support received only a few days ago from the European Union, “since the Paraguayan position, no matter how it is interpreted by them (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay), or us for that matter, countries as Germany, France, Spain and Italy have congratulated us for defending and not negotiating institutional legality”.

“We have all the willingness in the world to become fully active in Mercosur but do not trample with Paraguay’s dignity. Now it is in the hands of them (Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay) and may God allow this to be so, if not unfortunately we will continue to bite the dust, but I insist the dignity of Paraguay is untouchable”, underlined Cartes.

Special envoys from Cartes have been in Montevideo, and a good offices mission visited the president-elect in Asunción, but so far there seems to be no advance. Furthermore at the July summit in Montevideo, Venezuela will be taking the Mercosur chair for the first time, which Paraguay does not accept since the Senate has systematically rejected such option and the situation was circumvented with the suspension of Paraguay from Mercosur.

Cartes not only received strong political support from EU ambassadors in Asuncion, but on Saturday left for a tour of Europe and on Monday is scheduled to meet with King Juan Carlos and PM Mariano Rajoy in Madrid. He will later travel to Brussels, France and Germany.

In Brussels Cartes will hold talks with the president of the European Community Jose Manuel Barroso and with the European Council delegate, Heman Van Rompuy. He is also scheduled to meet with the EU Development Commissar Andris Piebalgs and with Karel De Gucht, trade commissar.