Mercosur members pressure Venezuela

Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay may use Venezuela’s violations against Mercosur’s agreement to hinder it from taking over the Mercosur’s presidency. Currently, the presidency of the block is being held by Paraguay and the country is very reluctant to pass the stick to Venezuela`s President, MR. Nicolás Maduro, due to great political and economic instability the country has been facing.

Venezuela joined Mercosur on 2012 and had a period of four years to adjust itself to the bloc’s rulings. However, the deadline for this adaptation stage is on August 2016, and the country has not fulfilled not even 45% of the rules it had agreed. For instance, Venezuela has not incorporated two important agreements within Mercosur yet – the Residency Agreement, which guarantees Mercosur citizens the right to work and live in any other member-state, and the Human Rights Protocol.

Some pundits Advocate that the real goal of accusing Venezuela of not committing to Mercosur rules is to prevent the country from assuming Mercosur’s presidency in the midst of a thorough economic crisis. This could be especially true at a moment when neither Brazil nor Argentina, Mercosur’s founding members, have adhered to all the Mercosur’s rulings.

In the light of this controversy, Mr. Serra, the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has proposed an anticipation of Mercosur’s summit to August. In the occasion, the non-integration of Venezuela to Mercosur’s rules might be used as a justification for not transmitting the presidency of the block to this country, aiming also to avoid a standstill within Mercosur, at a moment when the block is eager to enhance the level of its engagement on international trade negotiations.

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