
The president of the Paraguayan congress Senator Jorge Oviedo Matto said that Paraguay should withdraw from Mercosur if the block during its Tuesday summit in Montevideo agrees the incorporation of Venezuela “eluding the approval of the Legislative as indicates the Constitution and the Mercosur charter”.

Mercosur member countries meeting in Montevideo for their regular six-month summit are drafting a resolution that would bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from all Mercosur members’ ports, following on the traditional Argentine policy and now openly supported by the Uruguayan government.

Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman publicly thanked and praised on Monday the Uruguayan decision, announced last week, to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels form the port of Montevideo and any other sea or fluvial terminal in the country.

President Barack Obama has accused the government of Venezuela of threatening basic democratic values ahead of elections next year. He added that close relations with Iran and Cuba did not serve the interests of the Venezuelan people.

A two day Mercosur summit begins Monday in Montevideo with Foreign Affairs ministers meeting Monday and the presidents on Tuesday when the rotating chair will be passed from Uruguay to Argentina for the next six month.

Brazil’s International Affairs presidential advisor Marco Aurelio García admitted there is “disappointment” in Mercosur with the delay from the Paraguayan congress in approving the incorporation of Venezuela.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica announced Mercosur is considering the modification of legislation so that Venezuela can definitively be incorporated as a full member to the South American trade block, which has been blocked for several years now by the Paraguayan Congress.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández began on Saturday before Congress her second term with a seventy minutes speech strongly focused on domestic issues with clear messages to labour, corporations, the financial sector, the Judiciary but also a “fine tuning” pledge to continue with the current national, popular, inclusive economic development model.

Argentina and Brazil agreed on Friday to “increase” in the “short term” regional trade in a shared strategy to address the consequences of the global crisis. The commitment was endorsed by Argentina’ Industry minister Debora Giorgi and her Brazilian counterpart Fernando Pimentel.

The IMF recommended Uruguay greater flexibility in the management of macroeconomic policy, ahead of unexpected changes in the international scenario.