Venezuela: disqualification of María Corina Machado confronts Mercosur partners

The situation of Venezuela and the disqualification of the opposition Maria Corina Machado faced the Mercosur partners on Tuesday, with Paraguay and Uruguay demanding “raise your voice” against the government of Nicolás, and Brazil and Argentina favorable to “dialogue”.

The four countries once again highlighted their differences regarding Venezuela at the LXII Summit of Mercosur Heads of State, which was held in a hotel in the Argentine city of Puerto Iguazú, where Brazil assumed the pro tempore presidency of the South American group.

During the meeting, two blocs with radically opposed responses to the crisis in Venezuela, which for several years has hovered over the summits of a Mercosur that suspended the Caribbean country in 2017, became clear.

Brazil and Argentina call for dialogue

On the one hand, it was the presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, and of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defended the negotiating table as the main vehicle to advance the negotiations between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition.

“What has happened with (María) Corina Machado we take into account and we propose a dialogue table”; the problems “are not solved with countries getting into internal issues”warned the Argentine president.

Machado, registered to participate in the October primaries in Venezuela, prior to the 2024 presidential elections, was recently disqualified from running for a popularly elected position for 15 years.

That decision has called into question the Venezuelan Executive’s commitment to free and transparent elections next year.

In this context, Fernández said that “the best way” to resolve this ‘impasse’ is “recovering the dialogue” and “guaranteeing autonomy” from the country.

“If they really want to help, let’s sit at the table” of dialogue, “Let all those who disappeared join in” so that Venezuela can “recover the fullness of their rights and institutional quality”defended.

Along the same lines, Lula, who in his first days in office resumed diplomatic relations with Venezuela, suspended during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), and last May received Maduro with State honors, said he was unaware of the “details” of the “problem” with Machado, but who wants to find out about it.

Even so, he opted for “discuss” because what can’t be done is “isolate” and “take into account only the defects that are on one side, which are multiple”.

Paraguay and Uruguay ask to condemn Maduro

Fernández and Lula only spoke about Venezuela in the last minutes of the Mercosur Summit. In their initial speeches they did not mention the matter, as did the presidents of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, and of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou.

Both rulers spoke out energetically against the latest maneuvers by the Maduro government.

Abdo Benítez, who will leave power on August 15, when Santiago Peña, also a conservative, will succeed him, denounced in his speech the “political restrictions” in Venezuela, alluding to Machado’s disqualification.

“When a way out appears, an itinerary of hope with the holding of elections with the opposition, we quickly saw that illusion extinguished with the disqualification of María Corina Machado”he expressed. Lacalle Pou also asked Mercosur “raise your voice” against this last decision.

“A healthy democracy will not emerge from Venezuela”Yeah “A candidate with enormous potential is disqualified for political and not legal reasons”he assured to later recommend to his Mercosur partners try to be objective”.

Before the summit, there was an expectation, always remote, that Brazil and Argentina would give some signal in favor of an eventual return of the Caribbean country to Mercosur, from which it was suspended in 2017 for an alleged “rupture of the democratic order”.

This is because Lula’s government has publicly expressed its desire to see the neighboring country return and even announced that “sometime” wants to discuss this matter again with the other three partners of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).

In fact, in his first words after assuming the rotating presidency, Lula made it clear that he wants “bring Mercosur to other countries” of South America in order to form a block with more negotiating strength before the European Union (EU) or China, although he did not directly mention the Venezuelan case.

“We need to talk to everyone,” sentenced the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT).

Source: EFE