Uruguay back stepped on its statements referred to Brazil's “bullying with the Mercosur presidency” and admits there was a misunderstanding regarding Brazil's invitation for a joint trade promotion in third countries, according to an official clarification Wednesday release from the Uruguayan foreign ministry.
Brazil summoned Uruguay's ambassador on Tuesday after the neighboring country's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa accused Brazil of trying to buy its vote to block Venezuela from taking the rotating presidency of the Mercosur trade bloc.
Uruguay's Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said on Monday that he was opposed to the proposal that the Mercosur presidency should be held collectively, as a number of countries are opposed to Venezuela taking over the role. The proposal has been sponsored by Paraguay and Brazil for several weeks, particularly Brazil's Foreign Minister Jose Serra.
The coordinators of Mercosur founding members will decide next 23 August at a meeting in Montevideo on the legal measures to be applied on Venezuela, which self proclaimed itself the presidency of the group and is also questioned for not complying with the rules and regulations to be incorporated to the group. In that case Venezuela could lose its full member status.
Argentina is at the beginning of a new dialogue on the Malvinas issue with the current UK government and this includes air links, hydrocarbons, identifying Argentine graves remains in Falklands, a possible meeting of the two countries' leaders in China, but none of this will happen overnight or make media headlines, anticipated foreign minister Susana Malcorra.
Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina are waiting for a report on Venezuela´s compliance with the accords agreed in 2012, which has to delivered next Friday 12 August, and could lead the group of three counties deciding the suspension of Caracas as full member of Mercosur. A week and a half later, 23 August, representatives of these countries will be meeting to address the issue.
Mercosur founding members coordinators who met in Montevideo on Thursday to address the controversy over the presidency of the group and the self proclamation to the post by Venezuela, did finally reach some conclusions, but the most significant seems to be that they continue to disagree on the steps to follow and are prepared for another round of talks.
Venezuela has defiantly confirmed that is will fully exercise the self-proclaimed presidency of Mercosur, despite the opposition from Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, who consider the chair vacant and are meeting in Montevideo to find an alternative for the six month mandate.
Mercosur's disarray and fault lines were again exposed when Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay insisted that Venezuela's self proclamation as president of the group was invalid, and also expressed disappointment with Uruguay for having ended its mandate last Saturday causing great uncertainty.
Venezuela rejected Argentina's call for an urgent Mercosur meeting and underlined it is exercising the group's pro tempore presidency legally accusing Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay of being part of a Triple Alliance which is re-editing a sort of Plan Condor against Venezuela to harass and criminalize its model of development and democracy.