Brazil Told of Venezuelan Treachery in Paraguay

Brazil Political News

BRASILIA – A Brazilian congressional committee heard testimony accusing Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez of inciting military revolt in Paraguay, reported estadao.com.br. The Paraguayans appeared before the committee this week seeking to gain Brazilian support for the new Paraguayan president, Frederico Franco.

Brazil Told Venezuela Meddling in Paraguay

Paraguayan Senators Miguel Saguier and Miguel Carrizosa and Rep. David Ocampo told the committee that last Thursday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro visited the Army barracks in Asunción and proposed to the military that they surround Congress to prevent the impeachment trail of former president Fernando Lugo, a Chavez ally.

“The military told us that Maduro preached sedition,” Carrizosa told the committee.

“Unlike what happened in Brazil during Fernando Collor’s impeachment (1992), in Paraguay the president is not stripped of authority when the impeachment action begins. Lugo continued as armed forces chief after authorization of impeachment went to the Senate. He could have hit Congress to prevent the senators decision,” continued Carrizosa.

Saguier said the process was legal and its speed was because there was a risk that Lugo would order the military to impede the meeting of the Senate.

“We ran the risk of having two presidents: Lugo and Chavez,” Saguier said.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies declared on Wednesday “persona non grata” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, for his comments on the political crisis in the country, calling it “open interference in internal affairs” of Paraguay, reported notitarde.com.

The statement added that Maduro’s criticism also constituted a “clear threat” against “the determinations of Congress under the Constitution in force.”

The Vice President of the Foreign Relations Commission, Jose Lopez Chavez (Unace party, retired General Lino Oviedo), released the text and explained that the measure is a response to statements made by Maduro on Friday.

That day, the Venezuelan minister branded the impeachment in Parliament against Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo an “abuse of democratic institutions and a parliamentary coup against the rule of law.”

A Friday article in the Financial Times confirmed the reports of Nicolás Maduro visiting the Army barracks to incite armed rebellion against the Paraguayan Congress. The article also implicated the Ecuadorian ambassador to Paraguay in the plot, saying that he accompanied Maduro to the barracks.