Brazil and Argentina want to resume bilateral trade, share stance on Venezuela

Argentina and Brazil have similar positions on the political conflicts in Venezuela, sparked by the recent barring of three opposition lawmakers, elected last December.

“These are Venezuela's problems, and they're addressing them with their own institutions,” said Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in an interview Thursday (Jan. 14), following a meeting with the new Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra. The two ministers “completely agree” on that, he said.

“We are monitoring the situation in Venezuela closely and with keen interest,” Malcorra said, adding that the inter-branch disputes in Venezuela are “internal” affairs and are still ongoing. “We are confident that, like what happened in the parliament election [in December], the choice of the people will be abided by by the government and everyone else,” Vieira said.

This has been the fourth meeting Vieira and Malcorra have hasd since Argentinian President Mauricio Macri was sworn into office on December 10, but the first formal meeting without the heads of state being present. The main topic on the agenda was MERCOSUR, which was created exactly 25 years ago to be a multilateral bloc of southern South American countries, and a resumption of bilateral projects in a number of areas, including defense.

According to Vieira, Brazil and Argentina are interested in a partnership to produce KC-390 military aircraft, designed by the Brazilian Air Force and manufactured by Brazil's aircraft maker Embraer in collaboration with Argentina, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. Bilateral minister meetings in a range of topics will take place in the coming months, beginning with the ministers of Industry and Trade, Science and Technology, and Defense.

Vieira conveyed an invitation from President Dilma Rousseff for Macri to come in a state visit to Brazil in the coming months.

Venezuela

During his election campaign, Macri moved to invoke MERCOSUR's “democracy clause” against Venezuela on the grounds that the government of President Nicolás Maduro curbs the press and has unfairly arrested opposition leaders. This provision, which can result in economic sanctions and suspension from the bloc, can only be enforced by consensus among the other member countries. Brazil has always been opposed to it.

The situation changed after Venezuela's legislative elections on 6 December. The opposition won a parliamentary majority for the first time in 17 years, electing 112 of the 167 National Assembly members and thus securing a two-third majority in Parliament. This is enough to remove top government officials and call a Constitutional reform.

Maduro's government conceded defeat, but later made allegations of election fraud in Amazonas state and challenged the election of three opposition legislators. The opposition charged the government with launching a “legal coup” and swore the three into office. The Supreme Court then ruled that any legislative decisions would be illegal until the challenged legislators were removed from Congress. The three eventually stepped down to allow the passage of a law pardoning opposition leaders arrested over rioting and conspiracy allegations.

For Mauro Vieira, the political disputes are Venezuela's internal problem, so the Brazilian government will wait and see how the events will unfold. In his opinion, the situation is quite different from the 2012 suspension of Paraguay from MERCOSUR, the first in the bloc's history.

Back then, both MERCOSUR and UNASUR (a union of ten South American countries) held that the flash impeachment of Paraguay's president, a legal move that is in the Constitution, was “not legitimate”.

The difference in Venezuela's case according to Brazil's Foreign Minister is that the adversaries continue to argue their points and have not reached a deadlock. It is too early now to tell how the disagreement will turn out, Malcorra added.

Translated by Mayra Borges

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