MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2019) Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza slammed on Thursday Ecuador's decision to leave the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) as treason.
Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno announced earlier in the day the country's intention to withdraw from UNASUR, voicing doubt in the bloc's efficiency. According to Moreno, half of the member states neither participate in UNASUR activities nor make any contribution to it.
"We cannot have traitors in our ranks or we will lose our motherland," Arreaza wrote on Twitter, citing the statement that Venezuelan late political leader Simon Bolivar made back in 1811.
UNASUR is a regional organization that became a legal entity back in 2011. It aims at enhancing trust between the regional countries and creating an integration space for the South American people. While it once comprised 12 South American states, most of them have now pulled out.
Last year, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Paraguay said they were suspending their membership in UNASUR due to disagreements about the candidacy of the secretary general and the bloc's stance on Venezuela. After it, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela remained the active members of the alliance.
