President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took off to Brasilia on Monday afternoon to attend the Mercosur Summit in which Venezuela’s entry to the regional economic bloc will be formalized.
The summit will officially start on Tuesday morning at the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, the Itamaraty Palace in Brasília.
The President traveled along with Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, Planning Minister Julio De Vido and Communications Secretary Alfredo Scoccimarro.
Once there, Fernández de Kirchner will meet with his Uruguayan counterpart, José «Pepe» Mujica, amid the controversy triggered over the case of irregularities in the dredging of the Martín García Channel in the Río de La Plata river, although the Head of State said she will not address that issue with the Oriental leader as all dialogues and efforts will continue in the hands of the Foreign Ministry led by Héctor Timerman.
The summit will mark the return of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías to the international stage as it will be his first official trip outside the Caribbean country so far in 2012, after having recently declared himself «free of cancer” after undergoing a prolonged radiotherapy in Cuba which prevented him from, among other things, travel to Cartagena, Colombia in April to attend the Summit of the Americas.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald