Mercosur will not impose economic sanctions on Paraguay despite concerns over the ousting of the country's president, officials said on Thursday evening at the summit taking place in Mendoza, Argentina.
Besides the Mercosur summit, the Argentine city of Mendoza will also be hosting on Friday an emergency meeting from the Union of South American nations to discuss Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo’s swift removal and replacement by a government which has triggered strong resistance in the continent.
The removal of Fernando Lugo from the Paraguayan Executive office was legal, said Brazilian former president and Senator Fernando Collor, quoted by O’Globo. He insisted there was “no coup”.
Ahead of a regional meeting on Paraguay, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on all concerned to “work in the days ahead to ensure the peaceful resolution of differences” which led to the removal of the Paraguayan president.
United States strongly supports the Organization of American States Council decision to send a top level delegation to Paraguay headed by Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, said on Wednesday US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland during the daily briefing.
Paraguay’s head of the Industrial Union Eduardo Felippo said that he’s supportive of the possibility that the country is excluded from Mercosur, adding that “the rest of the members are going to lose more money than us”
Ousted Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo announced on Tuesday that he will not be attending the coming Mercosur summit scheduled to take place this Thursday and Friday in Mendoza.
While the ouster of Paraguay’s president is a setback to the young democracy of the country, it shouldn’t be viewed as a repeat of Latin America’s history of coup d’états. The painful process of democratic maturity will continue, albeit slowly.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica rejected on Monday the possibility of applying economic sanctions on Paraguay following on the “parliamentary coup” as was announced by Venezuela which decided to cut the supply of subsidized oil.
The Paraguayan Supreme Electoral tribunal said on Monday that President Federico Franco “must complete” the current mandate that concludes August 2013 and discarded any possibility of advancing the national elections scheduled for April the same year.