The designated foreign minister of Brazil, Mauro Vieira, asserted that his country will support the return of Venezuela to the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).
“We are going to support the return of Venezuela” to the bloc formed by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, Vieira said in an interview published by the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo.
Vieira, who was Foreign Minister during the term of former President Dilma Rousseff, indicated that the expulsion from Venezuela was “justified” by some Mercosur protocols that the country had not yet ratified.
The diplomat indicated that the outgoing Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, made the decision to withdraw the Venezuelan ambassador from his country also due to legal requirements.
Although he pointed out that he does not know the legal status of Brazil-Venezuela relations, he assured that one of the first diplomatic initiatives of President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be to reestablish said relationship at all levels.
He added that the first step to achieve that goal will be to send to Caracas a business manager who will open the embassy and be named official representative of the southern nation.
“There is no reason not to have an ambassador in Venezuela, you cannot turn your back because the country has a government with a different orientation, especially a neighboring country, with a 2,000-kilometer border in the Amazon,” said the Brazilian diplomat. .
He also said that the next government will support Bolivia’s formal entry into the regional bloc.
“Without a doubt the government will support it, the expansion of Mercosur is important,” he added.
Relations between the southern giant and the Bolivarian nation Venezuela will be restored after the leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil on October 30. The ties between both countries had been broken by Bolsonaro’s decision to recognize former deputy Juan Guaidó President of Venezuela. It is expected that on January 1 they will reestablish relations.
