South American summit bars new Paraguay leader after ‘parliamentary coup’

South American summit bars new Paraguay leader after ‘parliamentary coup’
By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, June 24, 2012 18:59 EDT

Paraguay’s new president was barred Sunday from participating in a summit of South American presidents next week, deepening the country’s isolation over the ouster of former president Fernando Lugo.

Argentina’s foreign ministry said the move was adopted by the other members and associate states of Mercosur, a South American trading bloc that is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Mendoza, Argentina.

The statement expressed the group’s “most energetic condemnation of the rupture of the democratic order that occurred in the Republic of Paraguay, for not having respected due process.”

The summit had loomed as a key test for Paraguay’s President Federico Franco, who has so far failed to gain international recognition for the government that replaced Lugo.

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