PT leader in the Chamber requests Serra's summons.

247 - The PT leader in the Chamber, deputy Afonso Florence (BA), filed this Tuesday (16) a request to summon the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Serra, to give “personally”, in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, explanations about the complaint by the newspaper El Pais, from Uruguay, that he tried to buy the vote of the Uruguayan government to suspend the transfer of command of Mercosur to Venezuela in exchange for future trade agreements.

Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa accused the interim government of Michel Temer of trying to “buy the vote” of his country to isolate Venezuela in Mercosur, removing it from the bloc’s rotating presidency. According to a report published this Tuesday (16) by the Uruguayan newspaper, Novoa informed that Serra offered Uruguay participation in future trade agreements that would be negotiated by the coup government Temer with other countries.

Afonso Florence said that transcripts of a meeting between that country's foreign minister and Uruguayan deputies clearly demonstrate that José Serra, on a trip to the neighboring country accompanied by former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, "tried to prevent Uruguay from complying with the rules imposed on Mercosur."

In the request, the congressman states that "it is evident that a representative of the Brazilian government, especially someone holding a federal ministry position, cannot, in any way, use subterfuge to disregard international norms ratified by Brazil in favor of an unreasonable political stance."