Argentina’s president urged regional leaders to abandon what he called timid diplomacy toward Venezuela and back U.S. efforts against Nicolás Maduro’s government.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Argentine President Javier Milei publicly welcomed President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela’s government and urged fellow Mercosur leaders to align with the United States, using the weekend summit of the South American trade bloc to press for a tougher regional stance toward Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking during the 67th Mercosur Heads of State Summit in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, Milei repeatedly referenced Venezuela and described the country as being mired in a “devastating political, humanitarian, and social crisis,” calling on member states to openly support Washington’s efforts against what he characterized as an authoritarian socialist regime.
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Milei urged Mercosur countries to back the United States against Nicolás Maduro, emphasizing that Venezuela remains suspended from the bloc after it was expelled in 2016 over human rights abuses and violations of Mercosur rules. Mercosur was founded in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, with additional associated states participating in the bloc.
During his roughly nine-minute address, Milei warned that Venezuela’s political system posed a regional threat. “The atrocious and inhumane dictatorship of narco-terrorist Nicolás Maduro casts a dark shadow over our region. This danger and shame cannot continue to exist on the continent, or it will drag us all down with it,” Milei said.
He added that Argentina supports Washington’s current approach. “Argentina welcomes the pressure exerted by the United States and Donald Trump to liberate the Venezuelan people. The time for timid approaches to this issue has come to an end,” Milei said. “We also urge all other members of the bloc to support this position and strongly condemn this authoritarian experiment.”
Milei also called for the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela and reiterated Argentina’s demand for the liberation of Nahuel Gallo, an Argentine citizen detained in December 2024 on what Buenos Aires has described as dubious conspiracy charges, similar to the cases of several other foreign nationals held by Venezuelan authorities.
Following the summit, Milei joined Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, and senior officials from Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador in issuing a joint statement condemning Venezuela’s human rights situation and affirming their “firm decision to achieve, through peaceful means, the full restoration of democratic order and unrestricted respect for human rights in Venezuela.”
The joint declaration did not include the signatures of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva or Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, both leaders of Mercosur founding nations. Lula said during the summit that what he described as U.S. intervention in Venezuela would amount to a “humanitarian catastrophe” for the Southern Hemisphere and could establish “dangerous precedents for the world.”
Argentina’s Todo Noticias reported that Venezuela was discussed extensively during the summit, but disagreements between Argentina and Brazil led to the issue being excluded from Mercosur’s final declaration. According to the outlet, Brazil was willing to include language defending human rights in Venezuela but also sought to reference concerns about U.S. military deployments in the region and to reject what it described as unilateral coercive measures.
“As no agreement was reached on these points, Venezuela’s paragraph was excluded from the Mercosur declaration and the other six countries chose to release their own text,” Todo Noticias reported.
Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno reinforced Milei’s position in comments to La Nación. “Maduro is a dictator and he has to go,” Quirno said. “This is a position shared by the majority of Mercosur and associated states. We have suffered firsthand with the kidnapping of gendarme Nahuel Gallo, but it is the Venezuelan people who are suffering.”
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