CARACAS, Sept 3 – Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has apologised to Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes for any ‘pain’ caused to Paraguay and promised a ‘sacrifice’ to repair the ‘error’.
This is according to sources from both presidents and from Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff who sponsored the meeting between the two heads of state in the framework of the recent Latin Unasur VII summit in Suriname’s capital Paramaribo.
Venezuela and Paraguay have diplomatic relations at their minimum level following events of June 2012 relative to the Latin Mercosur market group membership controversy and the fact that Nicolas Maduro at the time Foreign minister of deceased president Hugo Chavez was declared ‘persona non grata’ by the Paraguayan Senate.
“I’m highly grateful to President Dilma for her efforts; this is the second time she has asked me to talk with President Maduro and insists on the importance that all of us should be united in Mercosur,” said President Cartes.
The Paraguayan leader also “publicly thanked Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro for his willingness to repair any error, pain or injury that he might have caused to the Paraguayan people,” said Cartes.
However, Cartes also pointed out that the situation of Paraguay with Venezuela “is not only a problem of the Executive, but also of the Legislative and the Paraguayan people, and in the framework of the dignity of our country.”
“It was a cordial distended meeting with Dilma present and with President Maduro. I look forward to an integrated Americ,” said Cartes later in his mini-blog and twitter, after the discussions.
Maduro was also on his twitter and described the event saying: “a good meeting with president Dilma and president Cartes. I ratified my respect and love for Paraguay! However, no documents or other information were released about the following steps from this first positive approach of the two leaders, or about future diplomatic discussions.
The previous Paraguayan government under President Federico Franco blamed Venezuela as one of the sponsors of isolating the country and having Asuncion suspended from Mercosur and Unasur, following the impeachment in the Senate, with an overwhelming vote, which decided the removal Fernando Lugo from office for incompetence.
At the time Foreign Minister Maduro was caught on tape trying to convince the top commanders of the Paraguayan armed forces to take to the streets in support of the removed Lugo.
Paraguay was not only suspended from the two regional groups, but in its absence the remaining Mercosur members (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) approved the incorporation of Venezuela as full member and awarded it the chair of the group for the next six months.
This decision went over the Paraguayan Senate which had yet to take a vote on the matter, which was ignored, when all Mercosur major moves must be by consensus and with all members participating.
The first request from Dilma Rousseff was during the inauguration ceremony of President Cartes last Aug 15 in Asuncion to which President Maduro, despite holding the chair of Mercosur was not invited.
Meanwhile from Asuncion, it was reported that Paraguay insists in reviewing all decisions adopted by Mercosur during its 14-month suspension.
Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga said Paraguay will hold before Mercosur the same position it sustained at the Unasur summit in Suriname requesting that all decisions adopted during the last year and two months in which the country was suspended, are formally analysed.
Loizaga on Monday gave some details of Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes participation at the Unasur, Union of South American Nations summit which marked the formal return of Paraguay to the regional group.
The Paraguayan official underlined the one paragraph addition to the “Paramaribo Declaration” which expresses Paraguay’s right to analyse all decisions adopted by Unasur during its absence motivated by the suspension decided by the other eleven members as a consequence of the removal from office following political impeachment with an overwhelming vote, of former president Fernando Lugo.
Regarding the meeting in Paramaribo of Cartes with his Venezuelan peer Nicolas Maduro, sponsored and with the participation of Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, the foreign minister said the two leaders only spoke about the bilateral relation and not Mercosur, from which Paraguay was suspended in June 2012. “Cartes spoke with Maduro about the re-launching and normalisation of diplomatic relations in the future,” said Loizaga.
“Mercosur and relations with Venezuela are on different tracks and in this we are working with the foreign ministers of other countries; we will inform when the time comes. But will continue to support dialogue, and there is a clear willingness from all Mercosur and Unasur members to continue advancing on this approach,” added Loizaga.
More specifically on Mercosur, Loizaga said that there will be no reincorporation of Paraguay since “we never abandoned Mercosur; Paraguay is a founding member and continues as such in the recovery of the rights that belong to Paraguay from the very beginning of the Asuncion treaty that gave birth to Mercosur.”
In June 2012 after suspending Paraguay, the other Mercosur members approved the incorporation of Venezuela as full member, a condition that had been blocked for several years by the Paraguayan Senate.
The Mercosur charter says that the incorporation of any new full member must be ratified by all four founding members and the full presence of the four, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Paraguay and Venezuela recalled their ambassadors because of the events of June 2012 with the removal of Lugo and his replacement by Federico Franco, a government which Caracas and the rest of Mercosur refused to recognize.
Maduro then foreign minister of deceased president Hugo Chavez was caught on video trying to convince Paraguayan military commanders to take to the streets in support of Lugo. The Paraguayan Senate declared him ‘persona non grata’.
– BERNAMA
