Paraguay Recalls Envoy From Venezuela Amid Mercosur Chairmanship Conflict

Paraguay has recalled its ambassador Enrique Jara from Venezuela amid an ongoing conflict over the Mercosur Latin American regional economic bloc chairmanship issue, El Nacional reports citing spokesman of the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry Elvio Venegas.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay of uniting against Caracas on the Mercosur presidency transfer issue. On Friday, Venezuela insisted that it will assume presidency of the bloc.

Uruguay officially ended its chairmanship of the Mercosur bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, last month.

Mercosur presidency for this half of the year was supposed to be transferred to Venezuela. However, there have been concerns over growing discord in Venezuela amid a political standoff between Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition-dominated parliament.

Both Paraguay and Brazil have been actively calling for the blocking of Venezuela's chairmanship due to what is being claimed to be a breakdown of democratic order in Venezuela.

A Thursday Mercosur meeting, where the issue of the transfer of chairmanship over the Latin American regional economic bloc was discussed, ended with no progress made.

Argentina proposed on Thursday that temporary chairmanship could be implemented on a unified basis, but no agreement was reached on the issue.

According to Deputy Minister of Economic Relations of Paraguay Rigoberto Gauto, Mercosur will meet again in the coming days.

According the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry, Mercosur chairmanship transfer will remain an unresolved issue, despite Venezuela’s announcements of it having taken on presidency.