Mauricio Macri (Photo courtesy of Mauricio Macri)

Mayor Mauricio Macri’s decree in defence of the freedom of the press and freedom of expression is being debated today in the city legislature.

Helio Rebot will chair the Commission for Constitutional Affairs meeting during which Macri’s decree will come under scrutiny.

Although the decree has already been published, the commission will establish whether or not it should in fact be in force, or whether it should be rejected by the legislature in the coming month.

The emergency decree, signed on 14th May, aims to “guarantee the protection of journalists and the media throughout all of Buenos Aires.”

It also puts forward the idea that Argentina’s capital ought to operate within a specially created legal jurisdiction, allowing it to intervene in affairs which endanger freedom of expression.

Rebot opened the meeting with the following: “If it is ratified, this decree will be about more than Macri, it will protect future journalists, whatever their opinion.”

The emergency decree has also attracted strong opposition. Their arguments range from suggestions that the decree is unconstitutional and lacking in legitimacy, to those who hold that it was done specifically to favour the interests of media conglomerate Grupo Clarín.

In a dialogue with state news agency Télam, Juan Carlos Dante Gullo of the Frente Para La Victoria party stated: “In principle the decree violates our federal spirit, articles of the constitution, and, unfortunately, forces us to engage in discussions about the privileges one business, and that business is called Clarín, instead of engaging with projects which benefit our citizens and those citizens who live in the capital.”

City legislator María América González went on to say “this decree a null bill. It attempts to supersede national legislation, something which is forbidden in the constitution.”

Despite its critics, the move has seen support in the province of Córdoba where governor Juan Manuel de la Sota enacted a similar bill last Friday. It seeks to circumvent any actions which “restrict, alter or censure” freedom of expression.

In a similar vein, Friday saw a group of journalists sign a document that rejected any intervention at all on the part of the State in its affairs. The Argentine Association of Journalistic Entities (ADEPA) meanwhile published a document that contained a robust support for the decree.

Argentina is no longer a world leader in beef exports. Of the countries that make up the trading block Mercosur, Argentina exports the least amount of beef, trailing behind the likes of Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

Beef cattle
(Photo: www.geograph.ie)

This is a startling decline. Back in 2005, Argentina was the third largest exporter of beef, shipping to more than 70 countries. Now it ranks 10th in the world. Mexico, which has half the amount of bovine stock, has overtaken it with Brazil coming in at number one.

According to the most recent statistics from the Economic Research Institute of the Socieded Rural Argentina (SRA), in 2012 Argentina exported only 183,000 tons of meat. Brazil and Uruguay far exceeded this number exporting 1.3m and 350,000 tons respectively.

According to experts, the decline can be traced back to 2006 which saw an increasingly interventionist politics thought to have had a negative impact on the markets. Luis Etchevehere, president of the SRA had this to say, “the current government has destroyed the profitability cattle. We are now in eleventh place… [behind even] Mexico which doesn’t traditionally export.”

More specifically, Nieves Pascuzzi, an economist at SRA, blamed the drop in exports on the government’s decision to keep the price of meat in the domestic market low – thereby linking the amount of beef available for export to local monthly demand. He also cited the “lack of competitivity in exports” and the “over valued exchange rate” as important factors in the decline. Bovine stock itself is also on the decline thanks to poor results reported by fridge owners.

Argentina went from having 57m heads of cattle in 2006 to 51.7m in 2012, whilst the rest of the region increased its herds. Since 2005, 130 fridges have been shut down and more than 15,600 workers have been laid off. Public opinion in the agriculture sector is glum.

The head of the Agrarian Federation announced that a protest is bing organised in Junín for the 22nd of this month.

Horacio Cartes (photo courtesy of Horacio Cartes’ official Facebook page)

Last night, 23rd April, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) announced its official recognition of Horacio Cartes as the legitimate president of the Republic of Paraguay.

In a press release from the union’s headquarters in Quito, Peru, the international body congratulated Cartes and the Partido Colorado on their win of Sunday’s presidential race. It also confirmed that its observation mission that had been monitoring the country’s electoral situation was pleased with Paraguay’s apparent full-compliance with the democratic process.

According to the organisation, the observation team found “fulfilment of the electoral timetable, normal development of the elections, and a high participation rate amongst citizens”.

UNASUR commended the large sector of Paraguayan citizens that voted in the recent elections and congratulated state officials on their efficient management of the process on the day of the event.

According to UNASUR, the instalment of Cartes, who was elected with approximately 46% of total votes, represents advancement in Paraguay’s democratic-institutional development after last year’s dismissal of President Fernando Lugo, which left the country suspended from UNASUR and political-economic bloc Mercosur.

In the light of the UNASUR approval of the democratic process and that of 74 observers from the European Union who also monitored Sunday’s election, Paraguayan Foreign Minister Jose Felix Fernández Estigarribia said: “We have shown to the world that we are capable of sustaining democracy and have opened the doors for foreign missions to come here and observe how Paraguayans vote and chose our authorities in clean, exemplary elections.”

Despite UNASUR’s acknowledgement of fair elections, according to news agency Agencia Púlsar, the Organisation of American States (OAS) has called attention to an apparent lack of regulation regarding campaigning in the media leading up to the general election. The OAS is also criticising lax oversight of campaign spending.

Mercosur as of 2012 with Paraguay suspended (courtesy Wikimedia)

Paraguayan president-elect Horacio Cartes has vowed to develop trading relations by ensuring his country’s return to Mercosur, South America’s leading trading bloc.

Mercosur, which aims to promote the free trade of goods, capital, services and people among its member countries, suspended Paraguay after its former President Fernando Lugo was dismissed last June.

In one of his first public speeches after Sunday’s vote, newly-elected Cartes has pledged to enter into fierce negotiations with Paraguay’s senators to seal the country’s Mercosur place, stressing that it would be “sheer nonsense” to abandon the block.

Speaking at his first press conference, Cartes said that even though many aspects of the bloc could be improved, Mercosur is too important for Paraguay as it will channel jobs and foreign investment. He stressed that it will be his priority to ensure the quickest possible return to the trading bloc for the sake of his country.

“The preferential tariffs we enjoy inside the block attracts mostly Brazilian companies that are established in Paraguay and gives employment to our people; this is unquestionable. We are going to do everything possible to return to Mercosur,” he told press.

The billionaire entrepreneur said he is ready to normalise Paraguay’s relations with other countries and believes that re-entering Mercosur will provide a platform to begin negotiations and develop relationships with other regions of the world. And Cartes is likely to start by attempting to ease tensions with an aggrieved Venezuela, after Paraguay blocked the country from Mercosur membership in 2006.

After Paraguay’s dismissal last year, however, the remaining members, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, admitted Venezuela into the union. Cartes said that although he has not yet spoken with Venezuelan President Maduro, he has sent “messages with buena onda“.

Known as the common market of the South, Mercosur aims to enable a free-trade area within the South American continent and was created in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The bloc is responsible for more than three quarters of South America’s economic activity. Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are associate members of the bloc, which means that they can join free-trade agreements but are exempt from its customs union.

A summit between the Community of States of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) was held in Santiago de Chile over the weekend. As the bilateral summit ended yesterday, the 2nd CELAC Summit was inaugurated by Chilean president Sebastián Piñera.

EU-CELAC Family (Photo by European External Action Service - EEAS, on Flickr)

The CELAC-EU Summit, held over two days, finished yesterday with the signing of the ‘Santiago Declaration’. The main issues discussed during the work meetings and expressed in the declaration include the commitment to encourage free trade between the two regions and to establish a stable legal framework to protect investments.

“What we have all expressed here is the commitment to create a new strategic alliance between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean,” said summit host Piñera in yesterday’s closing speech.

The positions regarding trade between the two blocs, however, were not unanimous. Whilst the countries from the Pacific Alliance -Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile- and the EU were more favourable to encouraging deregulation and free-trade between Latin America and Europe, the Mercosur countries -headed by Argentina and Brazil- plus Bolivia and Ecuador, put more emphasis in the need for internal trade and protectionist measures to protect the local industry.

German chancellor Angela Merkel stated that “during difficult times, and Europe has been through some tough years, no one can expect that the best way to overcome those difficulties is protectionism.” A different opinion was expressed by Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who said that “there are emerging countries with an emerging industrial development, competing with the EU’s consolidated development, and these asymmetries need to be accounted for, so as not to damage our industry, and especially our people.”

The Santiago Declaration also included the rejection by both CELAC and the EU to the US embargo against Cuba, which “represents an important threat to multilateralism.”

After the the 1st CELAC-EU Summit ended on Sunday, the 33 members of CELAC stayed on in Santiago to take part in the 2nd CELAC Summit. As Chile is the current head of CELAC, it was president Piñera’s job to open the meeting, the first one since the organisation was created in December 2011 in Caracas, Venezuela. The Chilean president started out his speech by paying homage to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who is currently recovering from a cancer operation in Havana. “We are all hoping he can win this battle, perhaps the hardest battle of his life,” said Piñera as he pointed that the Venezuelan president “has had a deep impact in the organisation [CELAC].”

Other absent presidents were Dilma Rousseff, who travelled back to Brazil as news of the Santa María tragedy broke; Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who is currently on leave as he focuses on his re-election campaign, and Federico Franco of Paraguay, who was not invited due to the controversy surrounding former president Fernando Lugo’s dismissal last year.

Despite his physical absence, Chávez was a part of the meeting as a letter he wrote to the CELAC representatives was read today by Venezuela’s vice-president Nicolás Maduro. In it the president, who lamented not being able to attend the summit, said that “CELAC is the most important political, economical, cultural, and social union project in our contemporary history.” He also celebrated that Cuba will take the rotating presidency of CELAC next, calling it “an act of justice after more than 50 years of resistance against the criminal imperial embargo.” The letter added that “Latin America and the Caribbean are telling the United States with one voice that all attempts to isolate Cuba have failed and will fail.”

During the summit, the countries’ representatives will discuss issues such as the fight against terrorism, the embargo against Cuba, and the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. It will also pay homage to the former presidents who founded the organisation, which has been dubbed by the media ‘an Organisation of American States (OAS) without the US and Canada’. The conclusions from these talks will be expressed in the Declaration and Action Plan of Santiago 2013.

At the end of the summit, Piñera will hand over the temporary presidency of CELAC to Cuban president Rául Castro.

It’s Friday again!

And if you’re reading this it’s because you survived December 6th, a day that will be remembered as one of the most eventful days in recent history.

Today was expected to be a day to remember, as the much-dreaded December 7th (also referred to as “7D”) was supposed to arrive.

Remember? 7D! The day that the National Government had been advertising for months as the day in which Grupo Clarín‘s hegemonic dominance of terror was going to come to an end, prompting humanity to leave its current state of slumber and transition to a higher plane of consciousness that brings forth a new age of global understanding.

And yet, today feels totally anticlimactic. Because it was yesterday that the unexpected (and probably jealous) “6D” ended up stealing all the attention.

It’s hard to sum up in a few words the humongous amount of shit that happened yesterday. The feeling of anxiety, the uncertainty, the despair and the hilarious Twitter jokes that helped us engage in collective catharsis.

Last night, hundreds of newspaper editors around the country were scratching their heads thinking of a single headline that could easily convey the wave of catastrophes that befell upon us without splashing the front cover with the word CHAOS.

Let’s just say that if yesterday had been a TV show, it would have been 24. And I’m not sure even Jack Bauer could have handled the pressure.

Suggested soundtrack for the following read: this. And don’t forget to like the Weekly News Roundup on Facebook so you can keep up with future updates.

The following takes place between 8 AM and midnight, on December 6th 2012:

• 

  President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner holding a copy of Clarín. And she's holding it weird. What's up with her left arm? It looks like one of those action figure arms that bend in a weird way. You know which ones I mean? It's like they try really hard to make them look human but dude, no. (Photo/Wikipedia)

  [8:00 AM] It’s raining in Buenos Aires and yet the heat is suffocating. The humidity is through the roof and millions of women complain about having a bad hair day. I know this seems like the end of the world but trust me, it gets worse. A lot worse.

• [9:11 AM] I should have suspected it was going to be a horrible day when on my way to a meeting I stepped on a banana peel and crash landed on the sidewalk like some loser. Yes, bad shit happens to me too but at least I exorcise my demons via Twitter. I know this is personal and unrelated but sorry, I just had to talk about it. And to whoever left that banana peel there on purpose: fuck you.

• [09:45 AM] The action begins. A container in Puerto Madero filled with drums of mercury catches fire. Local networks announce we’re all going to die very quickly.

• [10:32 AM] No, wait! Turns out it’s not mercury! Phew! No, it’s actually a chemical compound used in pesticides/insecticides that explodes when making contact with water. Rain water possibly leaked into the container, starting the fire upon contact. Firemen arrive and try to put the fire out with more water. Container explodes (obviously). Dense toxic cloud begins to hover above Buenos Aires. Authorities order the evacuation of offices and schools in Puerto Madero, San Telmo, Retiro and the downtown area. A putrid smell invades the city. Local networks announce we’re still going to die, only a slow and painful death.

• [10:53 AM] As hundreds of terrified parents double park their cars in front of their children’s schools in the downtown area causing traffic chaos and people run for their lives under the rain to escape the stench, former Deputy Mayor of Buenos Aires and current national lawmaker Gabriela Michetti casually tweets that she’s “enjoying the wonderful smell of the jasmines sitting atop her desk”. She becomes the most hated person on Twitter.

• [11:15 AM] The local authorities recommend the population to stay home, close doors and windows and  turn the AC off. Thousands begin to contemplate suicide. Not because of the poisonous cloud, but because of the suffocating heat inside their homes. All windows locked and the AC off? In this humidity?! Goodbye, cruel world.

• [11:20 AM] It is still raining. All Subte stations in the area close and the service is interrupted. The Retiro station is shut down before the last train arrives to the platform. Passengers get off the train and realize they are trapped inside, breathing the contaminated air. Oops!

• [11:25 AM] All trains in the Mitre line suspend their services to Retiro. People trying to escape the area are royally fucked.

• [11:27 AM] You know how you keep talking about taking a cruise someday and enjoying a non-eventful holiday? Well if you ever do, make sure your cruise has not been docked next to a fucking toxic cloud. It was like “Speed 2“, only less exciting and with better acting. It’s OK though, they sent the cruise to high seas for precaution and the only downside was that the tourists could not visit Palermo Soho and buy overpriced crap they would have never used anyway.

• [11:30 AM] Website of local tabloid Cronica runs this headline, Twitter explodes.

• [11:34 AM] Several people begin to report dizziness, and a burning sensation in throat and lungs. If they end up turning into zombies I’m gonna be sooooo pissed.

• [11:35 AM] Drama queens appear.

• [11:45 AM] Local authorities begin to suggest that the toxic spill may not be deadly after all, just “moderately hazardous.” Security Secretary Sergio Berni offers press conference from Puerto Madero in hazmat suit looking like a badass version of Jack Bauer, he becomes the most loved/mocked person in the media.

• [12:00 PM] Thousands of evacuees are disappointed after learning that the deadly cloud is actually not deadly and they have to return to work.

• [12:32 PM] The rain stops.

• [1:00 PM] Nothing happens, which is kinda of a bad omen.

• [2:00 PM] Sky turns black. It starts raining again, but this time it’s a torrential rain. People look outside their windows and find out they are unable to see the other side of the street.

• [3:00 PM] It is still raining like crazy. People begin to exchange gazes of confusion and legitimate concern. This rain is not normal. “Maybe it’s some kind of toxic rain, a result of the toxic cloud,” says a Twitter user clearly well versed in meteorology and with a degree from the University of Just Pulled That Out of my Ass.

• [4:00 PM] Everyone’s greatest fears become a reality when a flash flood hits many areas of the city, specially Palermo’s ugly sister (Belgrano).

• [4:15 PM] Cronica decides to go with another groundbreaking headline: “From Chernobyl to Venice“. Twitter explodes again.

• [4:30 PM] Because things are apparently kinda dull today, coach drivers decide to go on strike and block the exit of the Retiro bus station, trapping inside the facilities all passengers who were planning on going away for the weekend.

• [5:00 PM] As the heavy storm continues to flood the city, news break of a shootout at the DOT shopping mall. Initial reports suggest a group of 50 savages have entered the mall and begun ransacking stores and cannibalizing people or something. Seems legit.

• [5:10 PM] All subway lines interrupted due to severe flooding. Severe as in “completely under water”. More traffic chaos ensues.

• [5:15 PM] Blackouts are registered throughout the City as a result of the intense storm. Thousands complain about not being able to check their Twitter feed for snark.

• [5:23 PM] Buenos Aires finally collapses. The Arroyo Vega overflows and the busy commercial corner of Blanco Encalada and Cabildo Av. now looks like a disaster scene from The Bible, with hundreds of people trapped in over a meter of water. God help us all.

• [6:10 PM] A tornado?!  Are you fucking kidding me?! What’s next, Godzilla?!

• [6:30 PM] The rain stops, but it’s too late. Entire neighborhoods in the Greater Buenos Aires area and the City, including Palermo and Belgrano (the ones you care about) are flooded.

• [6:37 PM] Turns out the angry mob at the DOT was just protesting that due to the building’s poorly designed drain system, their settlement (Villa Mitre) was flooded, so they decided to take it out with the stores. There were no shots fired, no people eaten. Happy ending, kind of.

• [6:40 PM] People finally embrace the fact that they are bound to live in a third world version of Atlantis forever and start kayaking through the flooded streets of Belgrano, laughing maniacally.

•  [6:41 PM] Rumors begin to surface suggesting that a federal court has decided to extend the injunction on the Media Law requested by Clarín, a move that would effectively ruin the National Government’s celebrations prepared for December 7th (when the injunction was set to expire). In the newsroom where I work, I begin banging my head incessantly on my keyboard. This is the longest day of my (journalistic) life.

• [6:49 PM] Worst fears confirmed: the injunction has been extended. Millions of anti-Kirchnerites celebrate throughout the country while the Government just stands there, jaw-dropped in disbelief. The 7D mythology has been exterminated only a few hours before the celebrations began. In the newsroom, I try to cut my veins with one of those plastic spoons but my colleagues restrain me and talk me out of it by bringing Jesus into the conversation.

• [7:11 PM] The entire cabinet convenes with the President in an emergency meeting at the Olivos presidential residence.

• [7:30 PM] Godzilla finally shows up.

• [7:57 PM] People begin to freak out again as the Buenos Aires sky
  

  I have a feeling that if Jack Bauer lived in Buenos Aires he would have perished by around noon. (Photo/Wikipedia)

  acquires this sort of reddish hue that either heralds the end of times or means that a nuclear bomb just went off. Whatever the case may be, I’m ready. Bring it.

• [8:24 PM] In social networks, the expression “6D” starts to become “a thing”. I hate humanity.

• [9:30 PM] Tony Bennet is singing at the Gran Rex and I’m missing it because I have tons of work to do thanks to this interminable day.

• [10:30 PM] Cristina leaves for Brazil to attend a Mercosur summit licking her wounds and in a very, very bad mood. Like me, basically.

•  [11:59 PM] The coach drivers’ strike ends one minute before midnight, all passengers are freed. At the same time, the storm recedes, the water levels decrease, the cleaning staff at the DOT mall mumbles in discontent, Cristina is flying to Brazil with her blood pressure probably through the roof and the chairmen of the Grupo Clarín sacrifice a few babies to thank Baphomet for the blessings received. All in all a  pretty productive day.

Heads of state and representatives of various South American nations have gathered today in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, for the 44th Summit of the Common Market of the South, or Mercosur.

Brazilian president and current president of Mercosur, Dilma Rousseff, is hosting the summit from Brasilia’s Palacio de Itamaraty. In an opening statement she welcomed the representatives of member nations and invited guests, stating “Mercosur now extends to the Caribbean[…]We are the fifth economy in the world, we are a people with a high energy potential, as well as a diverse industrial park.”

She also outlined some challenges on the horizon facing the regional bloc, among them improving competitiveness and becoming a provider of food to an ever-increasing world population.

Presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and José Mujica of Uruguay are also present, representing one half of the four currently active member nations. Mujica will assume the rotating presidency of Mercosur from Rousseff. In his opening statement today, he noted that Latin Americans “must construct our own way of being, a way of defending ourselves against a globalisation that advances violently and rapidly against our cultures”.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Mercosur’s most recently acquired member state, could not attend the summit for health reasons, having returned from cancer treatment in Cuba in the early hours of this morning. Minister of Petroleum and Energy Rafael Ramírez is representing the Caribbean nation in his stead. This is the first summit in which Venezuela attends as an official Mercosur member.

Much attention is focused on Bolivian President Evo Morales; the Andean nation was invited to join Mercosur in November and Morales is expected to reveal his decision today at the summit. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, also present, has expressed his desire to bring his country into the fold as well. The press office of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry confirmed yesterday that the possibility of Bolivia and Ecuador’s acceptance was “on the agenda.”

Paraguay remains suspended from the regional organisation following former president Fernando Lugo’s ousting in June, deemed by many a “parliamentary coup”. The suspension – which paved the way for Venezuela’s acceptance into Mercosur – will remain in place at least until Paraguayan elections in April 2013.

When asked about Paraguay’s member status, Brazilian General Undersecretary Antonio Simoes said “I don’t see any reason to discuss it, because there was a decision to suspend them and the conditions of the suspension haven’t been altered.”

President Dési Bouterse of Suriname and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds of Guyana are attending as invited guests. Representatives from Chile, Peru, and Colombia are also in attendance as associate states.

Combined, the nations of Mercosur constitute a gross domestic product (GDP) of about US$3.471tr. Bolivia’s inclusion would raise that by about US$50bn.

Rousseff referenced Morale’s possible decision to accept the organisation’s invitation in her opening speech, stating that Bolivia’s inclusion would strengthen the “ideal of South American integration” and add to the organisation “a diverse culture, a culture of indigenous peoples of which we are very proud.”

Brazil’s ambassador in Venezuela yesterday announced that the country’s president, Hugo Chávez, will attend a regional summit meeting at the end of this week, despite his health concerns.

Ambassador Jose Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho told reporters that Chávez will travel to Brazil in order to take part in the Mercosur trade bloc meeting. “His presence is confirmed, that’s what I understand” said the Brazilian.

Venezuelan officials have refused to confirm the validity of the Brazilian ambassador’s comments.

The Venezuelan president recently received cancer-related medical treatment in Cuba, but his presence at the upcoming meeting would indicate that his current state is not as bad as some thought. He flew to Cuba to undergo “hyperbaric oxygenation”, a process which alleviates bone decay caused by radiotherapy.

Officials claim that the latest medical measures were follow up operations following the successful removal of two tumours from the President’s pelvic area. Chávez, however, has not appeared in public since 15^th November.

The high representative for Mercosur, Iván Remalho, revealed yesterday that the regional trade organisation invited Bolivia to become one of its permanent members.

Morales will announce Bolivia's decision in Brasilia in December (Simon Wedege, Wikimedia)

“Once Bolivia decides [whether to accept the invitation or not],  during the next Mercosur summit, that is going to take place in Brasilia on 6th and 7th December, we will start a dialogue and work process,” said Bolivian Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Choquehuanca. The minister also told the media that President Evo Morales would attend the meeting in Brasilia and he will be the one to announce the Andean country’s decision, after having analysed the benefits of such an inclusion.

Remalho highlighted the importance of Bolivia’s geographical position with respect to the other permanent members of Mercosur, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The other permanent member, Paraguay, has been suspended since President Lugo’s removal in June of this year.

“For our countries it is very important that Bolivia integrates Mercosur. It’s very important, because if you look at the map of Mercosur, Bolivia is at the centre, in the heart of Mercosur, it is the most apt to continue regional integration,” said Ramalho.

The map of Mercosur, with Paraguay in light green suspended.

Bolivia is already part of Mercosur as an associate state, the same status as Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The Andean nation could follow Venezuela, which became a permanent member in late July after several years as an associate member. The inclusion of Venezuela and potential inclusion of Bolivia are likely to revive tensions between Paraguay and the other Mercosur countries.

Historically opposed to the inclusion of Venezuela and Bolivia, Paraguay has had no say in their recent inclusion processes as it was officially suspended by Argentina, Uruguay, and Brasil who considered that President Lugo’s ousting last June, in what has been called a “constitutional coup”, was illegitimate.

Last August the Paraguayan parliament voted against the inclusion of Venezuela, with President Franco accepting the senate’s decision. However these legal steps taken by Paraguay are non binding and have had no effect on a regional level because of Paraguay’s suspension.

Eight farmers imprisoned for the bloody “Curuguaty Massacre” that contributed to the country’s abrupt leadership shift in June, begin their 20^th day of hunger strike today, claiming there is not enough evidence to prove their guilt and demanding they be released.

Among them is Felipe Nery Urbina, who, according to Curuguaty Manager Ramón Vega Barreto, was surely not involved. He presented photographs on Tuesday that show Urbina at a meeting in Cruce Yvy Pytã, five kilometres away from the conflict when it broke out. Barreto travelled to Asunción yesterday to meet with senators and explain Urbina’s situation.

The confrontation took place on 15^th June between the Paraguayan National Police and farmers in the Eastern region of Curuguaty. The skirmish left 17 people dead—seven of them policemen—and 80 wounded.

The Paraguayan Congress listed the incident as one of nine reasons they justified President Fernando Lugo’s impeachment little more than a week later.

The hunger strike continues as relations between Venezuela and Paraguay worsen. On Monday, Paraguayan diplomats were asked to leave Venezuela within 72 hours. The expulsion is reportedly a “reciprocity” move in reaction to Paraguay’s removal of Venezuela’s ambassador José Arrúe and former chancellor Nicolás Maduro, recently named vice president, last July. Venezuela, among other South American countries, denounce what many call a “parliamentary coup”, a stance that caused even more discord when Paraguay’s consequential suspension from Mercosur tipped the voting balance in favour of Venezuela’s admission.