In a statement released yesterday the regional mechanism noted that the move in Brazil “raises concerns and has regional implications, consideration of which justifies an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers,” as reported by PL.

Rousseff’s removal has prompted varied reactions among governments of the region, several of which have described the move as a “coup”.

The protests following the vote by the Brazilian Senate to impeach the president have multiplied across more than a dozen states; however incidents have only been recorded in São Paulo.

There, in the same place where just a few hours before a group opposed to Rousseff had celebrated her removal with honking, cake and champagne, supporters of the former president confronted the Military Police, who attempted to disperse two protests against the Temer government.

The two demonstrations departed from the São Paulo Art Museum, in the financial heart of the country, toward the center of the city and, for the third straight night, police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

In Brasilia, hundreds of supporters of the Workers’ Party mobilized, as they have done since Monday, in support of the former president.

A crowd gathered to hear Rousseff’s brief farewell speech following her ousting and sang the national anthem in front of the Palacio de la Alvorada, the presidential residence.

Several hundred gathered that evening on the Explanada de los Ministerios, facing the Brazilian Congress, to express solidarity with Rousseff.

Protests against Michel Temer also multiplied across Río de Janeiro, where hundreds of people demonstrated in the center of the city, and other capitals of the interior, such as Porto Alegre, Salvador, and Vitoria.

(Granma)

According to a statement released by the regional body this Sunday, July 10, Unasur hopes that the scheduled work agenda and meetings will help create a climate of peace and tranquility, as reported by Prensa Latina.

The statement was backed by former presidents José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain; Leonel Fernández, of the Dominican Republic; and Martín Torrijos of Panama, invited by Unasur Secretary General Ernesto Samper, who himself supported the statement, to mediate a national dialogue process between the Venezuelan government and opposition forces.

Considering the ratification of the commitment to reconciliation expressed by the Venezuelan government and opposition forces represented in the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), the former presidents reiterated their firm commitment to the task at hand, the statement added.

They also called on all parties to continue on the path toward peace and coexistence through dialogue and welcomed the strong support of the international community in these efforts.

According to Unasur, in this context, the firm will to support Venezuela to establish a national dialogue for the benefit of all its citizens is reaffirmed.

The regional organization was established in 2008 and includes as members: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

(Prensa Latina)

The two leaders authorized the immediate return of their respective ambassadors; agreed to an investigation of the situation on the border; will meet with ministers on Wednesday, September 23, to discuss border issues and the progressive normalization of the zone; as well as continue to hold talks facilitated by Ecuador and Uruguay, among other points.

Likewise they will establish an agreement to resolve border problems for the benefit of peaceful coexistence and socio-economic development, all within a framework of strengthening dialogue and respect in accordance with international law, reported AVN.

The two leaders gave a press conference after holding a meeting in the Carondelet Palace (Ecuadorian government headquarters), which saw the participation of Ecuador and Uruguay representing CELAC and Unasur, as mediators, according to TeleSur.

This meeting came as a result of repeated calls from both parties to hold talks in order to arrive at a joint solution to the various problems stemming from the Colombian-Venezuelan border situation, such as smuggling, paramilitarism and the arrival of thousands of undocumented Colombians in Venezuela.

(Granma)

This is the greatest challenge that public and private press, respectively, face nowadays, Samper told about a dozen heads of news agencies gathered at the UNASUR headquarters in Quito.

“I believe press can be made without becoming a tool of propaganda”, said the former Colombian president (1994-1998), adding that private media can also avoid lobbying in favor of owners interests.

According to Samper, the solution to the problem is not a matter of government or private control, but a matter of self-regulation. “It is the media and the journalists the ones who should establish the ethical limits of information”, he said.

Samper also made remarks about the reduction approach that big media monopolies implement when they report on the reality of these countries.

“They try to reduce the countries to codes with which they interpret what is happening, for example, Colombia is drugs, Bolivia is ethnic conflict, Venezuela is populism”, he said.

Samper also urged news agencies representatives to take into account the importance of social networks as ways to communicate and inform.

Participants to the event plan to create a South American News Agency (ANSUR).

Representatives from agencies like Venezuelan News Agency, Prensa Latina News Agency, Bolivian Information Agency, Argentina News Agency Telam, among others.

(Prensa Latina)

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) begins today the celebrations to mark the eighth anniversary of this bloc, which focuses on political, social, economic and environmental integration of the region.

UNASUR said that the agenda of activities will be carried out today and tomorrow at the headquarters of the bloc, located at the Half of the World, in northern Quito.

On April 17, 2007 in Isla Margarita, South American heads of State gave the project created in Cuzco the name of UNASUR and decided to establish a Permanent Secretariat in the Half of the World, Ecuador.

The Extraordinary Meeting of UNASUR Electoral Council will be held tomorrow, chaired by temporary president Jose Arocena to review the performance of the Technical Group for Electoral Coordination.

Deputy ministers of Defense Luis Medina, from Venezuela, Jorge Menendez from Uruguay, Victor Picagua from Paraguay, Ivan Vega from Peru, Jhon Achong from Suriname and Fernando Aramayo, from Bolivia, will hold an Extraordinary Meeting of the Executive Members of the South American Council of Defense.

In the meeting the Executive Secretary of the South American School of Defense (ESUDE) will be elected to lead this educational center created after the initiative of UNASUR country members to train civilians and military on regional security.

The opening of ESUDE is set for tomorrow, while at the UNASUR Auditorium the forum “Challenges of Democracy in South America: The Role of the Electoral Council” and the launch of the book “Democracy in South American Context” will be carried out.

The library Gabriel Garcia Marquez, with some 1,700 books on South American history and stories for children, is also scheduled for tomorrow, seeking to become a reference center for the community.

(Prensa Latina)

“We, South Americans, relieve in own intraregional solutions as the first option, said Foreign Minister of Peru, Edda Rivas, speaking on behalf of UNASUR in an open debate of the Security Council.

Rivas ratified UNASUR’s backing of the peace process between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and the support of several countries to that process, particularly Venezuela, Chile and Cuba.

“It is a historical opportunity that benefits from the environment of cooperation and dialogue prevailing in South America,” said Rivas, who estimated that the success of the peace process will have a broad-ranging significance for Colombia and for the whole South American region.

The open debate within the Security Council was called by Argentina to discuss the issue of cooperation among regional organizations to keeping peace and security.

In an interview with La Razon newspaper, the president said the decision aims to prevent the recurrence of incidents such as that occurred to him in Europe, where several countries canceled the flight permission of his plane, a decision Bolivia attributed to the White House.

“I will raise at the upcoming UNASUR meeting that all presidents define to take (the United States) to international courts to enforce human rights and international treaties. Such provision is based so that (what happen to me) never happens with no president in the world,” he said.

Morales said that although a restoration of ambassadors between the two countries, (Bolivia expelled it in 2008), is possible, the relations between Washington and La Paz will be based on distrust.

Morales initially trusted in President Barack Obama for coming from a discriminated sector, but then that hope of an improvement in the northern nation was broken, he said.

Bolivia and the United States maintain diplomatic relations to the lowest level since 2008, when Morales expelled the then ambassador Philip Goldberg and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in that country.

The open agenda was confirmed last night by Peruvian Foreign Minister Rafael Roncagliolo, while announcing that President Ollanta Humala had called the meeting of statesmen as Peru holds the pro tempore presidency of UNASUR.

“We believe that it is important to analyze the situation jointly, as we’ve done with other situations in the past; the agenda is open in order to have an opportunity for joint dialogue,” the minister said.

Roncagliolo said that statesmen from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname and Uruguay have confirmed their attendance at the event.

Diplomatic sources stated that Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa will send a representative, as he is touring Europe, while Maduro has also confirmed that he will send a delegate.

He recalled that the South American countries and Mexico, among others, have recognized results of the Venezuelan election, but it is important that leaders meet to gain perspective on the political situation in Venezuela.

Other local diplomatic sources said that the premise of the meeting is the recognition of the validity of the Venezuelan electoral process that defeated opponent Henrique Capriles refuses to accept, being backed in his position by the United States.

Argentina’s former vice president during the term of Fernando de la Rua, and minister of the Latin American Integration Association (Aladi) since August 2011, Alvarez is expected here today, where he will meet with the main authorities of the National Electoral Council (CNE).

With the visit of the UNASUR representative a very intense work schedule will begin, starting with meetings with political actors, national observation organizations and electoral technicians, the president of the Venezuelan Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, said on Wednesday.

The presence of representatives of the African Union of Nations was also announced along with at least 157 of the 214 leading figures invited by the CNE to accompany the elections.

“As established by the most elementary international practices of diplomacy and the principle of international law,” he added.

In statements to Prensa Latina, Rodriguez referred to the UK’s threat to raid Ecuador’s embassy in London to arrest the Australian citizen Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, and expressed Quito’s rejection of that threat.

The top leader of the integration bloc added that this situation, which poses a risk for a South American nation, further consolidates regional unity.

“It is happening, it is being demonstrated and it is being proved,” he said when alluding the UNASUR’s support for Ecuador, contained in the Guayaquil Declaration, approved last weekend in that city.

Rodriguez noted that if the UK is interested in maintaining good relations with the UNASUR and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), it must acknowledge the practices on asylum implemented in the region in an unalterable and consecutive manner.

However, he suggested, before that, the UK must withdraw the document containing the threat and create the conditions that existed before, so that negotiation can flow in terms of mutual respects between sovereign countries.

The UNASUR would contribute to guaranteeing peace and finding a solution to this situation, he stated.

Rodriguez concluded that there are enough arguments and foundation for the UNASUR’s unanimous support for Ecuador.

The right to asylum, he noted, is a common tradition that must be accepted in other regions for peaceful coexistence in the world.