ASUNCION, paraguay — Paraguay’s new government battled a wave of criticism Sunday as several of the nation’s closest allies condemned the dismissal of President Fernando Lugo by lawmakers, some calling it a congressional coup.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government will cut off fuel sales to the poor South American country. Venezuela had become a key supplier to Paraguay as Chavez had built close ties with Lugo, a moderate leftist.
Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Paraguay had been suspended from the Mercosur trade bloc, issuing a joint resolution by member nations expressing “their most energetic condemnation of the rupture of democratic order” in Paraguay.
The statement also said Paraguay would be suspended from a Mercosur summit to start today in Mendoza, Argentina.
Earlier Sunday, former Vice President Federico Franco, who was sworn in as president after Lugo’s ouster, said newly appointed Foreign Minister Jose Felix Fernandez would represent Paraguay at the summit.
Lugo had also said earlier Sunday that he planned to attend the summit and would hand over the rotating presidency of Mercosur to Peru next week, months before it is due to switch in November.
“I will not collaborate with Franco’s government because it is bogus. It has no legitimacy,” Lugo said. Earlier he denounced his ouster as a “parliamentary coup.”
