Versión Español
After rejecting “emphatically” the decision to suspend Venezuela from Mercosur indefinitely, Uruguay’s vice president Raul Sendic changed his mind and has followed in the president’s footsteps, supporting the decision of Chancellor Rodolfo Nin Novoa.
“My government took a position, which as the vice president I assume,” said Sendic, reversing his rejection of the resolution taken by Mercosur member states.
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“I support the position of the president regardless of whether each of the sectors has its position that will be analyzed by the political parties,” said the vice president at a press conference.
For his part, the Frente Amplio senator, Leonardo de León, explained that “Sendic is the vice president of the republic and backs the president’s decision,” but that “the decision of the 711 as a political sector must be considered separately.”
List 711 refers to a communiqué issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uruguay in which the Venezuela suspension was unanimously rejected, noting that they support:
“Absolute respect for the principle established in the Charter of the United Nations, non-interference in the internal affairs of any of the member states and unrestricted defense of the self-determination of the Venezuelan people” thus rejecting” the resolution taken by all States of Mercosur, to suspend the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in all its rights and obligations as a State Party of Mercosur.”
In addition to the support of the Communists and the 711 list, Maduro’s government was also backed up by ruling coalition member the Casa Grande party, headed by Senator Constanza Moreira, and the People’s Victory Party (PVP).
Uruguayan governments have generally trended left, and the country’s leadership was once an ally of Hugo Chavez. Their abandonment of the increasingly autocratic regime of Nicolas Maduro is a sign of the further regional isolation of Venezuela’s socialist regime.
Venezuela currently enjoys the support of the three remaining rigidly Communist regimes in the region: Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.
Sources: El Observador, El Pais, Montevideo
