Colombian Foreign Affairs minister Jaime Bermudez claimed Venezuela impeded reaching a consensus on a cooperation mechanism preventing the presence of Colombian guerrillas in other countries, during the Unasur ministerial meeting Thursday in Ecuador.
The extraordinary meeting of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) foreign affairs ministers convened by Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa for this Thursday should help to search for ‘solutions’ to the diplomatic rift between Venezuela and Colombia.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez office has confirmed he will be participating of the coming Mercosur presidential summit scheduled for next August 3 in San Juan, north of Argentina when the rotating chair of the block will be passing from Buenos Aires to Brasilia.
OPEC member Ecuador says it will start renegotiating contracts with private oil companies as it moves to increase state control over the sector. Under the new hydrocarbons law, the current production-sharing agreements will be replaced by a flat fee.
Ecuador strongly criticized the Organization of American States, OAS, for having speedily accepted a special session request from Colombia to address the alleged existence of Colombian guerrilla groups in Venezuelan territory which led to a major diplomatic and political situation between the neighbouring countries.
Former Argentine president and current Secretary-General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Néstor Kirchner, “will collaborate in the mediation led by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, in order to overcome the crisis between the Colombian and Venezuelan governments”.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa announced Wednesday he would be attending Colombian president-elect Juan Manuel Santos taking-office ceremony next August 7, according to a report from the government news agency ‘Andes’.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Friday his country had been removed from an international blacklist of countries who fail to comply with standards against money-laundering and terrorism financing.
The need for a mutual-trust environment, which helps avoid situations of possible conflicts inside the region, is one of the main points the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, will be discussing with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to Ecuadorian diplomatic sources.
Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said this weekend that the Argentine government has “high expectations” that former president Nestor Kirchner will be named next Tuesday as secretary general of the Union of South American Nations, UNASUR. In that case the UNASUR headquarters would move from Ecuador to Buenos Aires.