Incoming Argentine Foreign Minister contradicts Macri: "no reason to expel Venezuela from Mercosur." [View all]

[forest444]

Last edited Mon Dec 7, 2015, 04:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri's own Foreign Minister designate, Susana Malcorra, said today in a Radio Mitre interview that she will not request that the "democratic clause" be used to suspend or expel Venezuela from Mercosur, the five-nation Southern Common Market covering approximately 290 million people.

Both before and after his own presidential election victory two weeks ago, Macri had indicated that upon taking office he would file a motion to implement the democratic clause in order to expel Venezuela from Mercosur if President Nicolás Maduro did not release the opposition leader Leopoldo López. López had been responsible for leading a series of unauthorized protests that resulted in the deaths of 43 people.

Malcorra, currently Chief of Staff to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, affirmed that after the opposition victory in the parliamentary elections held in that country on Sunday, "the margin of victory (for the opposition MUD coalition) is really significant and has been recognized by President Maduro, which indicates that there is no reason for the application of the democratic cause."

"The democratic clause applies to concrete evidence of violations," Malcorra pointed out. "Elections in Venezuela have unfolded within the duly established democratic framework."

Yesterday, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) achieved a resounding victory in Venezuela's parliamentary elections, garnering 99 deputies against 46 for the ruling PSUV; the remaining 22 seats, out of 167, remain at stake.

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