MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay and Venezuela discussions to re-establish full relations and on Mercosur

President Cartes and his Venezuelan counterpart during last month’s Unasur summit in Suriname

Representatives from Paraguay and Venezuela are scheduled to re-take bilateral and Mercosur related discussions on the sides of the UN General Assembly this week in New York, according to Deputy foreign minister Manuel María Cáceres

“We’re working on it. We all want to give it a prudent lapse of time but also the soonest possible” said Caceres on Monday at the end of World Leaders forum hosted by the Columbia Univesity in New York and which was also attended by Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes.

“Dialogue at ministerial level between the two countries is scheduled for this week, but I can’t give more details”, added Cáceres.

This is not the first time such meetings take place. Last August 30 president Cartes met with his Venezuela peer Nicolas Maduro in Suriname during the UNASUR summit, which was considered a first positive step for the restabilising of full diplomatic relations.

Paraguay was suspended from Mercosur and Unasur in June 2012 following the removal by the Senate of Fernando Lugo. The impeachment vote was overwhelming but Mercosur considered it a congressional coup and decided the suspension until fresh elections were held. However at the same time the remaining Mercosur members voted the incorporation of Venezuela as full member, requested in 2006, but not accepted by the Paraguayan Senate.

Paraguay accused Venezuela of interfering in internal affairs and both countries cut their relations to a minimum. With the inauguration of President Cartes the Mercosur and Unasur suspensions were lifted, but Paraguay said it was in no hurry to return to Mercosur. Furthermore it demanded Mercosur respect for Paraguay’s dignity, rule of the law, international law and the charter of the group which works on the basis of consensus.

Likewise it did not accept or recognize Venezuela as chair of Mercosur as was decided by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. But since 15 August when Cartes took office there has been a new attitude from both sides and they are working on ways to rebuild the Mercosur group without any side losing face or debilitating cohesion.

But Paraguay all along has insisted that the first step is to re-establish bilateral relations with Mercosur and Unasur member-countries.

Meantime Venezuelan Foreign minister Elias Jaua requested guarantees from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the US will respect President Nicolas Maduro and his delegation, following the incident in which Venezuelans claim they were denied authorization to fly over Puerto Rico territory.

“We demand certain guarantees from the US to ensure the participation of President Nicolas Maduro at the General Assembly”, said Jaua.

At the time of the denial, US officials said the over flight request had been wrongly presented and that a few hours later the whole incident had been overcome. Nevertheless it seems certain that President Maduro will be attending the UN meeting in New York in his way back from an official visit to China.

Jaua also said that in the framework of respect and at the same level Venezuela is prepared to hold talks with Washington in issues of common interest. Washington and Caracas have been without ambassador since 2010 because of tense relations but this has not prevented the US from continuing at the main client of Venezuelan oil.