Mercosur welcomes Venezuela, suspends Paraguay
Source: Reuters
Mercosur welcomes Venezuela, suspends Paraguay
MENDOZA, Argentina | Sat Jun 30, 2012 2:04am BST
(Reuters) - The Mercosur trade bloc - which includes regional heavyweights Brazil and Argentina - will make Venezuela a full member next month, uniting South America's biggest grains and energy exporters.
At a presidential summit on Friday, Mercosur's leftist leaders also decided to extend Paraguay's suspension over the ouster of President Fernando Lugo until democracy is restored via new elections, scheduled for April 2013.
No economic sanctions were adopted against Paraguay but its officials will be banned from participating in Mercosur meetings. The suspension opened the way for Venezuela to be incorporated into the bloc since opposition in Paraguay's Congress was the only remaining obstacle after a six-year wait.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff praised the joining of forces, saying "food and energy security are becoming more and more relevant" globally.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/30/uk-mercosur-idUKBRE85T01620120630?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401
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Paraguay Suspended by Mercosur Bloc; Venezuela to Join
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Jun 30 2012 (IPS) - Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay decided Friday to suspend Paraguay from the Mercosur trade bloc in response to the impeachment of President Fernando Lugo, until elections are held in that country. They also announced that Venezuela would finally join as a full member.
No economic sanctions will be applied to Paraguay, to avoid hurting the Paraguayan people, said Argentine President Cristina Fernández, the host of the 43rd Mercosur (Southern Common Market) summit, which was held in the western Argentine province of Mendoza.
A week after Lugo was given less than 24 hours to prepare his defence and was impeached by the Senate, Paraguay’s partners in South America’s main trade bloc invoked the democratic clause, aimed at punishing countries that breach the democratic order.
According to the summit’s resolution, the suspension will last until the democratic order is fully re-established in Paraguay, which could happen after the new president to be elected in the April 2013 elections takes office in August next year.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/06/paraguay-suspended-by-mercosur-bloc-venezuela-to-join/
There's "Democratic" and "democratic" and "democratico" and "demokraticheskii" and ...
The dictionaries all give the meaning as 'democratic', but Stalin exalted his system--and 100 million people chimed in--as "democratic."
You see, democracy can be mob rule--if 50% of the population +1 decides that Africans aren't people, then they're not. That's democracy.
It can be representative, meaning that the people elect a subset to do the voting for them. Which is how we actually decided that Africans were 2/3 people.
It can be liberal, which means wedged into a certain ideology called "liberal." One of the features was that you needed a clear super(duper)majority to overturn certain basic principles that a minority, in setting up the government, decided were in the country's best interests. (The other variants of this involve different ideologies, all of which say 'majority rule is fine, but we have more important principles than majority rule."
Then there are the oligodemocracies, where "democratic" means "rule by a small minority, who have the best interest of the people in mind." "The people" could be the actual population or it could be a term of art: Some such "democratic" systems have killed off a tithe of their populations by simply decreeing that those people weren't part of "the people." Sometimes in the interest of the 99% you just have to get rid of the other 30% or even the other 90%.
Unasur has also suspended Paraguay. Sure, it may not have happened, but it's okay to use to the past tense because the decision has been made. It just needs to be approved in a True Democratic process that is fair(tm) and equitable(tm).
