
The Union of South American Nations, UNASUR, congratulated the Paraguayan people for their civic commitment in last Sunday’s presidential election and greeted Horacio Cartes, who was the winner with 46% of ballots.

When the last tanks rumbled past and the massive civil-military parade with display of state of the art missile launchers had come to an end in early Friday night of Caracas, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro could sigh in relief because his last twenty four hours had been really hectic.

President-elect Nicolas Maduro was set to be inaugurated in Venezuela Friday as election officials moved to defuse a political crisis by yielding to demands for an audit of the electronic votes of the results in Sunday's bitterly contested elections.

Sooner than expected Argentine President Cristina Fernandez seems to have accepted her Uruguayan peer Jose Mujica’s apologies following his coarse words: “this old lady is worse than the one-eyed man” to refer to the Argentine leader and her late husband Nestor Kirchner.

“We’re optimistic about Sunday’s election and the future of Paraguay if we can agree on long term state policies, but something is for certain: democracy in Paraguay is here to stay” said Ricardo Caballero Aquino, Chargé d’affaires of the Paraguayan embassy in Montevideo who was also positive about future relations with Unasur and Mercosur.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández will travel to Lima for a UNASUR meeting on Thursday in which regional countries are expected to express their support for the elections results in Venezuela and President elect Nicolas Maduro.

Paraguay will be electing a new president on Sunday and its re-incorporation to the Union of South American Nations, Unasur could happen under the new government anticipated Salomon Lerner, chief observer of the regional group.

Following five hours of a long recount process Venezuela’s National Electoral Council announced early Monday morning that acting president Nicolas Maduro is the new head of state, having defeated Henrique Capriles by less than a two percentage point difference.

Delegations from 65 countries some of them including Defence ministers will be attending the opening on Tuesday in Rio do Janeiro of the International Defence and Security Fair, (LAAD), the largest show of military equipment in Latin America.

Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica, speaking without realizing a microphone was on, referred to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as that ‘old lady’ saying she is “worse” than her late husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner.