Argentine president Cristina Fernandez will be chairing next Tuesday a meeting of the United Nations Security Council that will be addressing the relations of Latam and Caribbean regional and subregional organizations with UN in helping prevent conflicts and restore peace, was announced by the Argentine ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval.
Influential Latin American newspapers have been extremely critical of Brazilian diplomacy in its unsuccessful attempts to ‘subdue Paraguay’, while at the same praising the landlocked country’s dignity in demanding from Mercosur respect and compliance with the rule of the law.
President Rafael Correa said that the determining factor for Ecuador to join as full member of Mercosur or the Alliance of the Pacific is the ‘flexibility’ granted in certain admission conditions, taking into account the fact that Ecuador does not have a national currency.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica was ironic about the conditions Paraguayan president elect Horacio Cartes demanded for his country’s return to Mercosur, but also in a veiled message called for ‘intelligence and pragmatism’ recalling that Paraguay is a landlocked country.
President-elect Horacio Cartes will not make any comments on the ongoing dispute of Paraguay with Mercosur until after the group’s summit in Uruguay next Friday, when official decisions on the subject are expected to be made public. However for both sides any decision will most probably be challenging and ratify that Mercosur has become a political group far from its original trade and investment purposes.
Paraguay called for practical sense from its Mercosur partners Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to try and overcome the current impasse which could lead to a rift if Venezuela occupies the chair of the group at this week’s summit in Montevideo. Paraguay does not recognize Venezuela’s full membership because it was decided in its absence.
Chilean president Sebastián Piñera congratulated former president Michelle Bachelet and ex Economy minister Pablo Longeuira who emerged as winners in the two main coalition’ primaries held last Sunday, the first time such an event takes place in the country.
Spain called for calm on Friday in a diplomatic row ignited when Bolivian President Evo Morales's plane was diverted because of suspicions that fugitive US intelligence ‘leaker’ Edward Snowden was aboard. However he anticipated there would be no apologies from Spain as South American countries are demanding.
Latin American leaders gathered in Bolivia on Thursday to back President Evo Morales, fuming after some European nations temporarily refused his plane access to their airspace amid suspicions US fugitive Edward Snowden was aboard.
The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) condemned the diversion of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales flight on Tuesday, after France and Portugal refused to let the plane into their airspace. Several Latin American leaders criticized the decision severely, and asked for explanations from the international community.