Venezuelan President met on Wednesday with a committee from the Brazilian government to discuss mechanisms to speed the full integration of the country to the regional block. Brazil currently holds the Mercosur rotating chair.
The suspension of Paraguay and the intent to incorporate Venezuela to Mercosur represent a threat to the regional integration process, said the Mercosur Federation of Rural Associations, Farm, currently meeting in Santiago de Chile.
Paraguayan ambassador Emilio Gimenez Franco presented last July 11 his credential letters to French president Francois Hollande, making him the country’s representative before Paris.
Brazil’s influential newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo blasted Brazilian foreign policy and its handling of the Paraguayan political crisis. In an opinion column under the heading “Dilma’s anti-diplomacy” the newspaper argues that the current administration is politicizing foreign policy, the same way that her predecessor, Lula da Silva.
Paraguayan president Federico Franco said on Monday that the only coup, if that is the word, was implemented by Mercosur from the moment they left Paraguay out of the decision to incorporate Venezuela as a full member of the group.
Paraguay is prepared to demand Mercosur co-members before the International Court of Justice at The Hague for what it describes as “violation of signed treaties” and sustained “international isolation” following the rejection of an appeal to have sanctions lifted.
Paraguay will not be sanctioned by the Organization of American States, said the country’s ambassador on Friday following an informal meeting behind closed doors of OAS Permanent Council.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said he had talked with his peer from Brazil Dilma Rousseff who confirmed the invitation to an extraordinary meeting of Mercosur next July 31 in Rio do Janeiro.
The European Union - Mercosur trade negotiations calendar has been delayed and its full resumption is expected to take place in September or soon after, reports the EU press office in Montevideo.
Mercosur full members Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are insisting with their decision to sanction the Paraguayan government following the impeachment and removal of former president Fernando Lugo