MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur summit on 29 July in Caracas, according to Venezuela and Paraguay

Ministers Loizaga and Jaua confirmed all is ready for the summit when the rotating chair will pass on to Argentina

The much delayed Mercosur summit will finally take place at the end of the month in Caracas, according to sources from Paraguay and Venezuela. During the last OAS meeting, Venezuelan Foreign minister Elias Jaua confirmed to his Paraguay peer Eladio Loizaga that the date is 29 July and that the consultation process has been completed.

 “The respective consultations have been done” said Minister Loizaga who added that the political situation in Venezuela “should not influence because it is independent from this event”.

Since Venezuela took over the rotating chair of the South American group (which also includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia in the process of incorporation), Mercosur has not faced such a situation. In effect the last summit took place in Montevideo, July 2013, and the following Caracas meeting has been suspended four times for different reasons, diplomatically defined as “presidential agenda problems”.

In one of his latest public statements, Jaua had anticipated that Venezuela was ready to host the Mercosur summit, when the rotating chair will be handed for the following six months to Argentina.

The pending summit was originally planned for December 2013, but later suspended until 17 January; later to 30/31 January and again in mid February. The political situation in Venezuela; Brazil's Rousseff international agenda plus the health of Cristina Fernandez who had surgery in the head to drain a blood clot followed by a strict recovery of no stress, played on the delay.

Loizaga also announced that Paraguay agreed with Bolivia on “direct discussions” to promote the incorporation of the sixth member of Mercosur.

“It's a long complicated process but we will push it forward and on time. Once agreed President Horacio Cartes will send the bill to Congress for approval” said Loizaga who also recalled that the special mechanism is needed because Bolivia was accepted by the other Mercosur when Paraguay was suspended (June 2012/December 2013).

So far only the legislatives from Venezuela and Uruguay have completed the formality of congressional approval for Bolivia's incorporation.

Loizaga finally stated that all the decisions adopted by the rest of Mercosur members when Paraguay's suspension are under review, “since our petition to that respect has been acknowledged by the other members”.