Venezuelan oil sales to China have jumped by 60% since the start of the year, the country's oil minister said in an interview published on Sunday in the state-run Correo del Orinoco.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez reiterated that organisms such as the “awful, rotten and degenerate” Human Rights Inter American Court (CIDH) and the Inter American Court should disappear since they are “not worthy of the new world” ratifying his country will pull out from the two.
Fernando Lugo said he would appeal to the Inter American Court the whole political impeachment process in the Senate that ended with his removal from the Paraguayan presidency in less than 48 hours and with little chance of a defence.
Actor Sean Penn joined President Hugo Chavez at an election rally in Venezuela on Sunday, bringing a dash of Hollywood to the campaign as he rode with him atop a truck past cheering supporters.
President Hugo Chavez said that the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur was “exemplary” because it never yielded to “blackmail” from the Paraguayan extreme right and revealed that he met with Paraguayan Senator Lino Oviedo, considered the mastermind behind those attempts.
The US government said that Venezuela as any other country has the “sovereign right” to join regional organizations such as Mercosur. The statement from the US State Department comes on the day that Mercosur officially incorporated Venezuela as full member of the block.
After attending the Mercosur extraordinary meeting in Brasilia, President Cristina Fernández and her Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, signed a cooperation agreement to develop a strategic energy plan between state oil companies YPF and PDVSA.
Venezuela signed on Tuesday an agreement to purchase 20 commercial aircraft from Brazil’s Embraer in an operation valued at 900 million dollars
Argentine President Cristina Fernández said on Tuesday during a press conference held at the Mercosur extraordinary summit in Brasilia, that Venezuela’s entry to the bloc “strengthens the entire region” and creates a “new pole of power” at world level.
Following a full day of deliberations in Brasilia between Foreign Affairs ministers, the presidents from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, on Tuesday will formally receive Venezuela as the new full member of Mercosur, as was agreed at the regular mid year summit in Mendoza.