“It’s a major institutional blow, maybe the most serious in the 21 years of Mercosur” said Uruguayan Vice president Danilo Astori in direct reference to the group’s decision to incorporate Venezuela with the approval of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and the absence of Paraguay.
Argentina underlined late Monday that the decision on the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur was “unanimously” supported by the presidents from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay during the group’s summit last Friday hosted by President Cristina Fernandez.
The leading member from Brazil’s main opposition political party described Uruguay’s claim that consensus was absent in the Mercosur decision to suspend Paraguay and to incorporate Venezuela as “extremely serious” and complained Mercosur has become a merely “ideological” grouping.
The new Paraguayan authorities have named a special committee of prosecutors to inquiry into the alleged meeting between Venezuelan Foreign Affairs minister Nicolas Maduro and Paraguayan military during the recent impeachment process.
The Uruguayan government revealed on Monday its disagreement with the way Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur was decided last Friday at the summit held in Mendoza, Argentina, and said “it was not the last word” since the process must be reviewed from a juridical point of view.
President Hugo Chávez shook off his health problems to lead a massive rally on Sunday while opposition rival Henrique Capriles took to remote regions for the formal launch of Venezuela's presidential race.
Paraguay’s government blasted Mercosur decision of incorporating Venezuela as a full member of the bloc before finishing the legislative procedure to do so and did not discard the possibility of having the Paraguayan people “decide whether to remain or not in Mercosur”.
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay made official on Friday the temporary suspension of Paraguay from Mercosur, because of the ‘summary’ removal of President Fernando Lugo and at the same time announced Venezuela will be incorporated to the group on July 31 at a meeting in Rio do Janeiro.
A new index that measures a nation's wealth by taking into account factors such as natural resources, social stability and wellbeing, has painted Colombia and Venezuela in a very different light to that suggested by their GDP (gross domestic product) — the traditional measure of a country's success.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has a 16-percentage-point lead over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles ahead of an election in October, a new opinion poll showed on Tuesday.