Venezuela Dispels Myths Behind Attempt to Oust It from Mercosur

The right-wing governments of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil have moved to expel Venezuela from the Mercosur trade bloc over alleged failure to fulfill membership requirements, but in a press conference Wednesday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez presented evidence that the country has in fact satisfied 95 percent of the norms.

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According to Rodriguez, in four years, Venezuela fulfilled 1,479 of a total of 1,563 norms required by Mercosur, far exceeding the number met by the countries now trying to oust Venezuela.

Brazil has fulfilled 1,118 standards, or 44.72 percent, Argentina 1,024, or 41 percent, and Paraguay only 866, or 34.64 percent.

“These are hard facts that counter all the lies that they have tried to sell through communication campaigns against our country,” said Rodriguez.

The foreign minister said Venezuela would not recognize the suspension due to the fact that accusations leveled against the country were based on “fraud and conspiracy."

Rodriguez also stressed that Venezuela was the only Mercosur country to ratify the Ushuaia Protocol, signed in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2011, which provides the protection of democratic order in the countries of the bloc.

Early in his term, Argentine President Mauricio Macri attempted to invoke the Ushuaia Protocol in his drive to oust Venezuela from Mercosur, despite the fact his own country has not ratified the document.

A letter issued to Venezuela last Friday informing the country of the bloc's position made no specific mention of what requirements the country had allegedly failed to fulfill, but Paraguayan Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga later claimed that Venezuela has failed to specifically abide by the economic complementation agreement of Mercosur and the Asuncion Protocol on Human Rights.

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The effort by Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil to oust Venezuela has provoked a diplomatic backlash with Loizaga stating that Venezuela was not suspended but was under “cessation” instead.

Similarly, President Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay, also a full member of the bloc, said that Venezuela's ouster from Mercosur was “not irreversible.”

Rodriguez's claims that the country has, in fact, complied with the norms set out by Mercosur provides further evidence that the push to oust Venezuela from Mercosur is politically driven.

Venezuela entered the bloc in 2012, when most the countries of Mercosur were led by leftist leaders. However, since then a parliamentary coup in Brazil tilted the scales in favor of right-wing leaders inside the bloc.

Under left-wing leadership, the bloc focused on promoting regional integration, but the right-wing governments elected in recent years have now tried to once again reorient the bloc toward free trade. Critics accuse the conservative forces within the bloc of using Venezuela’s proposed suspension as a maneuver to steer the alliance down a neoliberal path.