Argentina wants to reestablish full relations with Venezuela

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez announced that he proposes restoring full diplomatic relations with Venezuela and asked other Latin American countries to act similarly at a press conference held on April 18 with his Ecuadorian counterpart, Guillermo Lasso.

“As a first step, Argentina wants to recover its full diplomatic ties. It is a step we are taking, and I call on all Latin American countries to review it because Venezuela has gone through a difficult period,” Fernández said.

Argentina had joined in 2017, during the government of liberal Mauricio Macri, the Lima Group, which sought a way out of the crisis in Venezuela and subsequently recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as president in charge of that country.

Under the presidency of the center-left Fernández, Argentina supported the reports of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on the abuses in Venezuela. Still, it withdrew from the Lima Group, an entity that virtually no longer operates.

“Bachelet intervened and worked together with the government of Venezuela. Many of those problems have dissipated over time. Based on the agreements reached by the Contact Group (European Union and Latin countries), we are seeing how Venezuela has advanced in its electoral process,” said the Argentine president.

Venezuela held regional elections in December under the supervision of a European Union mission, which praised the advances in the system, despite having highlighted irregularities that affected the “transparency of the process”. President Nicolás Maduro called the European delegates “enemies” and “spies” who could not return to the country to deliver the definitive report on the electoral process.

Although he said he would analyze Argentina’s proposal, Lasso stressed that Ecuador would not accompany the initiative at this time. He paid a visit to Argentina today and is expected to arrive in Uruguay tomorrow.

With information from AFP