
Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo was removed from office on Friday at 18:30 hours following an impeachment vote in the Senate where the motion was supported by 39 votes, four against and two absent.

President Hugo Chavez claimed that a small group of Paraguayan lawmakers, manipulated by a “powerful black hand”, are impeding the long-delayed access of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur.

Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo called for the free flow and free access of his country’s goods to Mercosur senior members’ markets and insisted on the energy integration of the block.