
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is returning to Cuba on Tuesday to continue treatment for cancer, raising new questions about his health just weeks after he won re-election to another six-year term.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica has plans to meet two, probably three times before the end of the year with his peer from Venezuela, Hugo Chavez to address “a real integration” of Mercosur, not limited to trade, but at the same time admitting that Venezuela is rapidly becoming one of the main markets for Uruguayan exports.

Henrique Capriles, the runner-up in Venezuela’s recent presidential elections, commented on comparisons between Argentina’s and Venezuela’s governments in an article published on Sunday in an Argentine provincial newspaper.

President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday that he will be attending the coming Mercosur presidential summit next 7 December in Brasilia and assured Venezuela is speeding up so the country can display all its potential within the political and trade block.

Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva said he believes it is time for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, recently re-elected for another six years, “to begin preparing his succession”

Venezuela’s expulsion of Paraguayan diplomats from Caracas, as a direct consequence of the ongoing conflict inside Mercosur has left Brazil with the challenge of recomposing relations inside the group ahead of Mercosur next summit in December which will be hosted by the administration of President Dilma Rousseff.

Venezuela's government decided to expel Paraguay's remaining diplomats from the country, the top envoy at the Paraguayan Embassy said on Wednesday. Charge d'affaires Victor Casartelli said that he and three other Paraguayan diplomats in Caracas were told by Venezuela's Foreign Ministry to leave within three days.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez named Foreign minister Nicolás Maduro as his new vice-president on Wednesday in the first change of cabinet after Sunday's re-election.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he had a pleasant meeting and discussion with the opposition candidate Enrique Capriles, whom he invited Monday evening to the presidential Palace following his re-election victory on Sunday.

The head of the Unasur delegation sent to Venezuela to follow Sunday’s electoral process, Carlos Alvarez said that the country had given the world a lesson of democracy because of its extraordinary electoral system and the attitude of the opposition, among other positive elements.