Carlos ‘Chaco’ Alvarez, the head of a UNASUR mission to Caracas that will oversee the coming election, yesterday declared his support for the Venezuelan electoral system.

Upon arrival in Venezuela’s capital city, ahead of the October 7^th election, Alvarez announced “Venezuela has one of the most advanced and reliable electoral systems from the region and the continent”.

The ex–vice president of Argentina also noted that the voting method has “great transparency” and can be monitored in a variety of different ways. The South American country employs a touch-screen finger print voting system that stores votes both electronically and physically, ensuring maximum protection against corruption.

Alvarez’s team are due to meet with the campaign managers of the two presidential candidates, the current president Hugo Chavez and the leader of the opposition Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chavez is seeking re-election for his third consecutive mandate.

The UNASUR delegation includes electoral experts from Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana and Peru, and Alvarez describes their mission as not “controlling or monitoring the election” but rather accumulating “the best practices of the electoral systems of our countries”. Venezuela will officially recognise the UNASUR officials as “international observers”.

Alvarez’s vote of confidence for the Venezuelan system comes just four days after former United States President Jimmy Carter voiced similar praise. In a statement made at the annual Conversations at the Carter Centre series, Carter said “I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”.

Over 19 million Venezuelans are entitled to participate in the October election. Latest opinion polls indicate that 57.2% of the population will vote in favour of Chavez.

Ecuador’s request for a foreign ministers’ meeting to discuss the Assange case was approved by the Organisation of American States (OAS), despite opposition from the US. Ecuador also received shows of support from ALBA (Bolivarian Allliance for our America) and Unasur (Union of South American Nations).

The OAS foreign ministers’ meeting will convene in Washington DC on Friday 24th August to ”address the situation between Ecuador and the UK regarding the inviolability of the diplomatic premises of Ecuador in the UK in accordance with international law, and to agree on appropriate measures to be adopted.” The resolution calling for the meeting was passed by 23 votes in favour and 3 against (the US, Canda, and Trinidad and Tobago).

The US have stated that the issue should be solved bilaterally between Ecuador and the UK. Furthermore, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, Victoria Nuland, said in a statement that “the United States is not a party to the 1954 OAS Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and does not recognize the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law.”

As well as the OAS emergency meeting, ALBA will convene today in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to analyse the steps to follow on the diplomatic row between the Andean country and the UK. Rodolfo Sanz, ALBA’s executive secretary, defended Ecuador’s decision, saying that “the right to asylum is contemplated in the Vienna Convention. That is very clear.” All eight members of the bloc -Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and St. Vince and the Grenadines- will meet to discuss Assange’s situation.

Unasur -a political alliance between Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela- will also hold an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Guayaquil tomorrow. The aim of the meeting will be to discuss “the threats made by the government of the UK against the integrity of the Ecuadorian embassy in London and against Ecuador’s sovereign right to administer its asylum policy.”

The European Union (EU) also stated its position, saying they consider the matter a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the UK and that they “trust that it will be resolved with dialogue and total respect to all applicable European and international laws,” a EU source told Spanish news agency Efe.

The Russian government, in turn, released a statement today warning the UK that entering the Ecuadorian embassy would be a violation of diplomatic principles. In the same statement, they pointed out that London has in the past granted asylum to many alleged criminals wanted by other countries.

WikiLeaks announced yesterday via Twitter that Assange will speak live “in front of the Ecuadorian embassy” in London tomorrow at 2pm BST (1pm GMT). It is unclear whether he will step outside the embassy to make his statement.

Representatives of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) are meeting today in Lima, Peru, to analyse the political situation in Paraguay after the deposition of Fernando Lugo, the country’s democratically-elected president.

According to Rafael Roncagliolo, Peru’s foreign minister, the so-called ‘High Level Group’ will present a declaration about the diplomatic missions that have been sent to Asunción since Lugo was removed from power after a parliamentary decision in July.

Besides Roncagliolo, the meeting will be attended by Unasur secretary general, Alí Rodríguez, along with representatives from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Surinam.

Paraguay was suspended from Unasur after Lugo’s deposition in an extraordinary meeting that took place in Mendoza, Argentina. The trade bloc, Mercosur, adopted a similar measure the same day.

Washington released a statement yesterday denying plans to exclude Paraguay from the Organisation of American States. Assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Roberta Jacobson said the United States would not be seeking Paraguay’s suspension from the 35 state organisation.

“At this moment there does not seem to be a reason to suspend Paraguay from OAS,” she confirmed, speaking from the OAS in Washington.

This was the first formal statement released from Washington since the ousting of Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo on the 22nd June and follows a two day fact finding mission led by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza last week.

Insulza declared himself against Paraguayan suspension yesterday, saying it would cause “divisions” and “unnecessary suffering” for the South American country.

Insulza was speaking after the third special session of the OAS Permanent Council since Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo was dismissed on the 22nd June. This was a special meeting on Monday to debate whether or not to suspend Paraguay’s membership, following decisions to exclude Paraguay by Mercosur and UNASUR.

Jacobson and Insulza have both stated that events in Paraguay should stimulate further cooperation across South America. Yesterday Jacobson said “I see Paraguay as a way of uniting us as a region, in support of Paraguayan democracy, not as an issue to exacerbate divisions”.

The OAS decision runs contrary to decisions taken by Mercosur and UNASUR who have both suspended Paraguay’s membership. Mercosur held an emergency summit on the 29th June and agreed to suspend Paraguay’s members until the next elections in 2013.

The same summit saw Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil agree to full membership for Venezuela, which had been blocked by Paraguay for several years.

On Monday, the Paraguayan government went before the Mercosur Permanent Tribunal to demand the re-instatement of their rights in Mercosur and protest Venezuela’s membership. Paraguay has accused Venezuela of being complicit in the coup against the government. On 4th July they released a video which showed the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Maduro, planning an uprising with the Paraguayan military in advance of the impeachment of former president Lugo.

The OAS have also stated they feel it necessary to “bring to an end the judicial process” launched by Lugo against the Paraguayan Congress.

Paraguayan foreign minister José Félix Fernández declared himself “optimistic” following the OAS announcement.

Also yesterday, UNASUR announced the launch of a high level group to assess and follow the Paraguayan situation, led by former Peruvian cabinet chief Salomon Lerner Ghitis. The group will begin activities on the 17th July.

Both Mercosur and Unasur have voted to suspend Paraguay’s membership after last week’s controversial impeachment of former President Fernando Lugo, but neither group will impose sanctions. Mercosur has also voted to grant full membership to Venezuela.

Paraguay was blocked from attending both the routine Mercosur summit held from 28th to 29th June and the emergency Unasur summit on 29th June.

Both organisations will suspend Paraguay until “the full reestablishment of democratic order can be verified,” with regional leaders looking to the country’s next scheduled elections on the 13th of April 2013.

Mercosur’s Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have deemed the impeachment of former Paraguayan president Lugo as a violation of the Ushuaia Protocol, the group’s so-called “democratic clause”. The suspension represents the first time that Mercosur has punished one of its member states in this way since the block’s creation in 1991.

Paraguay’s new government, headed by Federico Franco, has countered that the states failed to respect Article 4 of the Ushuaia Protocol because they did not consult with Paraguay on the matter.

Franco’s government has also promised that it will respect the next elections.

President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, however, called for regional leaders to do all they can to ensure that the elections are “democratic, free and just”. Unasur announced the creation of a ‘high-level’ group to continue monitoring and evaluating the situation in Paraguay, with a special focus on the country’s next elections.

Mercosur also announced the admission of Venezuela as its fifth full member.

Venezuela signed a membership agreement in 2006, but Paraguay’s congress had not yet ratified the country’s membership. With Parguay’s suspension, remaining members Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay – whose congresses had all ratified Venezuela’s membership – moved to admit Venezuela. The inauguration will take place on the 31st of July in Río de Janeiro.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez celebrated the news, declaring the moment a “defeat for imperialism”.

Mercosur’s rotating presidency was passed from Argentine President Christina Fernández de Kirchner to her Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff. Paraguay had been scheduled to assume this role until its suspension.

Unasur’s rotating presidency, meanwhile, was officially passed early to Peru. Until last week’s events, Paraguay had been president of the block and Peru was expected to take over in October; in light of the country’s suspension, however, the turnover was moved forward.

Former Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo announced that he will not attend the Mercosur and Unasur meetings scheduled to take place in Argentina this weekend. After Lugo was removed from office last week in a rushed and widely-criticized impeachment process,  Unasur leaders decided to hold an additional conference (accompanying the scheduled Mercosur Summit) to discuss the impeachment.

Lugo stated, in an interview with radio Mitre, that he would stay in Paraguay so as to “not influence” the debate this weekend. He assured that “foreign ministers have come to the country, they know the situation pretty well” and that his presence was not needed to explain what had happened in Paraguay.

Mercosur leaders decided to exclude the new Parguayan President Federico Franco from the summit and will discuss taking further actions against Franco’s government (which has not been recognized as a legitimate one by various countries) .

Lugo has promised to stay in touch with the leaders and to pay close attention to the decisions they make this weekend. He explained that he wants to dedicate himself to travelling throughout Paraguay in order to, as he told Telesur, “let people know what’s really happening…there is social resistance to this anti-democratic act, but the local press seems to give the impression that nothing really happened.”

Unasur has scheduled an emergency presidential summit this Friday in Mendoza to generate a joint resolution in response to the political situation in Paraguay.

The meeting coincides with the routine Mercosur summit scheduled to take place this Thursday and Friday, 28th – 29^th of June.

Unasur Secretary General Alí Rodríguez Araque stated that heads of state “will analyse the situation, [and] will make decisions – which must be made in consensus and in light of corresponding actions,” as quoted by Radio Programas del Perú.

He added “the focus is on the reestablishment of democratic order in Paraguay” and classified the transition as “a coup.”

In official communication, leaders of both Mercosur and Unasur have condemned the impeachment, criticising the “rupture of democratic order” in Paraguay. Mercosur has already blocked Paraguay from participating in its upcoming summit, including the presidential summit and preliminary meetings.

Former Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo, however, was invited with ‘testimonial’ status to the Mercorsur summit. He had previously stated he would attend the summit, and was expected to attend the Unasur summit.

Late Tuesday afternoon, however, Lugo declared that he would not be in attendance.

“I do not want to make the other presidents feel pressured in analysing the situation of the country,” Lugo stated, as quoted by La Voz del Interior.

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa had announced plans for an extraordinary Unasur summit in Lima tomorrow, but official announcements today revealed that the summit would be held Friday in Argentina.

Until this weekend, Paraguay held the rotating presidency of Unasur. On Sunday, however, ousted president Lugo passed the leadership to Peru’s president Ollanta Humala.

Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Brazil have all either recalled or withdrawn their ambassadors from Paraguay.

Venezuela is the only country to have taken concrete sanctions against Paraguay thus far; yesterday, President Hugo Chávez announced a block on exportations of oil to the country.

Some neighboring countries – including Ecuador and Bolivia – have called for sanctions, while others are calling for greater moderation; Brazil, Chile and Uruguay have stated that they are against sanctions.

Mercosur is comprised of member states Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and associate members Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Unasur is constituted by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The Organisation of American States also held an extraordinary meeting today in Washington, D.C. The meeting was originally scheduled for tomorrow but was moved forward.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, emphasised that the organization has no intention of interfering in Paraguay.

Chancellors of the Union of South American Countries (UNASUR) met this Wednesday in Buenos Aires to discuss commercial policies proposed by the South American Economy and Finance Council, in hope of tackling the effects of the international financial crisis on the region.

The council , which is made up of economy ministers and heads of central banks throughout UNASUR member countries, approved the development of a multilateral currency exchange system. They also agreed to create a bank for regional development, as well as creating a reserve fund.

Diplomats finalised plans to create an Electoral Council, which would analyse and keep tabs on different electoral processes in member countries.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the AMARC-ALC news agency.

The South American Nations Union (Unasur) will have a general and shared secretariat for the next two years. Colombian María Emma Mejía will take power this year while Venezuelan Alí Rodriguez will do in 2012. This decision was agreed by Unasur’s member nations.

During the same meeting a constitutional treaty was created to officialise Unasur’s international legal personality.

Also, the entity’s headquarters was settled and is to take place in the locality of Mitad del Mundo, northern Quito, Ecuador.

Unasur comprises 12 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela. Brazil and Paraguay have yet to rectify the treaty.

María Emma Mejía is a social communicator and TV host. She was Colombian chancellor between 1996 and 1998. She is part of the Alternative Democratic Pole..

Alí Rodríguez is the current minister of Electric Energy in Venezuela. He was the minister of Economy, Finance, Energy and Mines. He was also a chancellor, an ambassador in Cuba and general secretary for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will meet for its fourth Special Summit for Heads of State and Government in Georgetown, Guyana, where they will choose a new secretary general this Friday.

Representatives from the 12 countries will take part in the summit in Guyana, the country that has taken over the presidency pro-tempore in place of Ecuador.

The outgoing president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the ex-leader of Uruguay Tabaré Vázquez are among the candidates that could replace Néstor Kirchner, the ex-president of Argentina who died last month, as secretary general.

The presidents will also discuss the so-called democracy clause that has already been approved by foreign ministers.

This proposes to establish a protocol for countries that suffer the overthrow of their leadership and imposition of an illegal regime, such as closing borders, trade sanctions and suspending air traffic.

The clause has the scope to include a possible ‘early warning’ system so that at the first indication of an attack on a democratic state in the UNASUR, foreign ministers and presidents would be able to act and apply the sanctions.

The draft clause was written by Ecuador, a country that has had eight coups détat as well as numerous dismissals and popular revolts since 1996 – and was the scene of a political uprising against the president, Rafael Correa, in September.

The summit will also address the UNASUR constitution, which has been signed by eight of the 12 member states. Nine signatures are required for the constitution to be approved and put into practise.

Uruguay is expected to accept the draft; deputies have approved the treaty and the senate is now due to reach a decision next Tuesday.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.