Uruguay Withdraws From Unasur and Returns to the US-Backed TIAR

Uruguay's Foreign Minister Ernesto Talvi Tuesday announced that his country withdraws from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and returns to the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR).

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"The Government of Uruguay decided to withdraw from Unasur, which has already been abandoned by most countries in the region with the exception of Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. It is a regional body, based on political-ideological alignments," Talvi said.

This Foreign Minister, who was appointed by the right-wing President Luis Lacalle, also argued that Unasur no longer has headquarters and lacks a general operational secretariat.

Unasur was born in 2008 as a progressive project promoted by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and underpinned by other presidents such as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Nestor Kirchner (Argentina), Rafael Correa (Ecuador) and Evo Morales (Bolivia).

On Tuesday, the Uruguayan government also decided to interrupt the TIAR withdrawal procedure, which was requested by the former leftist President Tabare Vazquez in Sep. 2019.

The Lacalle administration indicated that Uruguay's participation in the TIAR will favor hemispheric defense, which would appear to be clear support for the U.S. attempt to take action against Venezuela from the TIAR.

The withdrawal of the TIAR "weakened the inter-American system and deprived our country of making its voice felt... in the field of collective defense and hemispheric security," the Uruguayan foreign ministry said.