“We will always maintain our commitment to you on any question of sovereignty because your right to self-determination is the cornerstone of our policy”, said British Prime Minister David Cameron in his Christmas message to the Falkland Islands.
“It is unacceptable to engage in an economic blockade of the Falklands, there can be no justification, legal, moral or political, for efforts to intimidate the people of the Falkland Islands”, said Foreign Officer Minister Jeremy Browne on Wednesday.
President Hugo Chavez claimed that a small group of Paraguayan lawmakers, manipulated by a “powerful black hand”, are impeding the long-delayed access of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur.
Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo called for the free flow and free access of his country’s goods to Mercosur senior members’ markets and insisted on the energy integration of the block.
The Mercosur presidential summit in Montevideo has been temporarily suspended following the news that a member of the Argentine delegation had committed suicide which left delegation members in a state of shock.
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”.
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.
The World Animal Health Organization, OIE, dependent from FAO, informed Paraguay that its territory had lost the condition of free of foot and mouth disease with vaccine, following an outbreak of the disease reported September 18.
Paraguay experienced negative inflation during the month of November influenced by the fall in meat prices, mainly beef, because of a ban on exports, which more than compensated an increase in fuel costs.
Chile and Uruguay are the least corrupt countries in Latinamerica, while Paraguay and Venezuela are at the other extreme, according to the latest ‘Corruption Perceptions’ Index’ from Transparency International released this week.