The diplomat Mauro Vieira, appointed chancellor of the government that the progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will assume on January 1, declared himself in favor of the return of Venezuela to Mercosur, from which that country was suspended in December 2016.
Source: AFP
“We are going to support the return of Venezuela” toThe bloc formed by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, said Vieira in an interview published this Wednesday by the newspaper “O Estado de Sao Paulo”.
The diplomat, who was Foreign Minister during the administration of Dilma Rousseff, who was dismissed in mid-2016, a few months before the bloc approved the suspension of Venezuela, indicated that this measure was justified by the fact that the Caribbean country it had not yet ratified some of the Mercosur protocols.
“There are some legal requirements and we don’t know how that is now, because we don’t have anyone in Caracas,” I point out in reference to the decision taken in 2019 by the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, to withdraw the Brazilian ambassador from Venezuela.
Vieira has already anticipated that One of Lula’s first initiatives in relation to foreign policy will be to reestablish relations with Venezuela at all levels. and to revoke Bolsonaro’s decision that recognizes opposition figure Juan Guaidó as the “legitimate president” of that country.
According to the future chancellor, The first step will be to send a charge d’affaires to Caracas, in order to “reopen the embassy”and then a new ambassador will be appointed.”
He also clarified that diplomatic relations will be restored with “the government that was elected” by the Venezuelans, which “is owned by Nicolás Maduro.”
