Image copyright AFP Image caption Venezuela was due to take over the Mercosur presidency in September

The South American economic bloc Mercosur has suspended Venezuela for failing to meet its basic standards.

The bloc's founding members - Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay - made the decision after concluding Venezuela had not incorporated key rules on trade and human rights into national law.

Venezuela, which joined the bloc in 2012, has argued that some accords conflict with its domestic legislation.

On Friday it said it rejected any decision to suspend it from the bloc.

"Venezuela does not recognise this null and void action sustained by the law of the jungle of some officials who are destroying Mercosur," Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said on her Twitter account.

In September Mercosur gave the Venezuela until 1 December to fully put its charter into effect.

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On Thursday, Brazilian officials were quoted as saying that the foreign ministers of the four founding countries had sent a letter to Venezuela saying its membership had been suspended.

"Venezuela has not adopted all the membership rules and treaties it had promised," one official told Reuters news agency.

Correspondents say Venezuela's neighbours have become increasingly concerned over developments in the country.

The opposition blames left-wing President Nicolas Maduro for widespread food shortages, looting, and human rights abuses. The government accuses the US and Venezuela's business elite of trying to destabilise it.

Since 2015, tensions between Venezuela and its Mercosur partners have been exacerbated by the replacement of left-wing presidents by centre-right leaders in Argentina and Brazil.

Earlier this year the bloc stopped Venezuela from assuming the rotating presidency.</s>BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Venezuela will be suspended from the Mercosur regional trade bloc as early as Friday for failing to meet membership requirements, a Brazilian official said, in the latest blow to the oil-producing country during a deep political and economic crisis.

According to the official, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, Mercosur understands that Venezuela failed to meet economic, human rights and immigration accords governing the group.

Mercosur’s other members are Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and regional diplomatic heavyweight Brazil.

Earlier on Thursday, Reuters reported that three unidentified Brazilian officials expected Venezuela to be suspended from the bloc.

“Venezuela has not adopted all the membership rules and treaties it had promised,” one of those officials said. “Everything indicates that Venezuela will be suspended starting in December.”

An Argentine government source said later on Thursday that the decision would not happen until a Dec. 14 meeting of Mercosur foreign ministers.

Socialist-led Venezuela has said it will not leave Mercosur and has denounced what it calls a campaign by right-leaning Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay to expel it from the group.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday said via Twitter that Venezuela had called on member countries to activate a mechanism for “resolutions of conflicts,” tweeting a complaint letter sent to Mercosur foreign ministers.

“Venezuela must be respected!” Rodriguez said on Twitter. “Officials who adhere to imperialist mandates will not win against our fatherland.”

The suspension would not carry any sanctions against Venezuela, but would sideline its government from bloc meetings and trade negotiations, the Brazilian officials said.

A suspension would also further isolate Venezuela as it struggles with food shortages and social unrest as its oil-dependent economy crumbles.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Tensions within Mercosur reflect the changing political landscape of a region that has turned to conservative governments after years of domination by leftist leaders buoyed by a commodities boom.

Some Brazilian officials had considered delaying the suspension to avoid hampering Vatican-led negotiations to ease the political crisis in Venezuela, but they later dropped those plans, said another official.

Businesses in Brazil have complained that the presence of Venezuela, which joined the bloc in 2012, has delayed key trade and regulatory decisions.

“It’s a political decision that shows Mercosur countries trying to be in line with the global reality,” said Roberto Ticoulat, head of the Brazilian Council of Commercial Exporters and Importers. “Brazil needs to be part of global trade, and we can’t wait any longer.”</s>Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela angrily rejected as a "coup" its suspension from South American economic bloc Mercosur on Friday, the harshest international punishment yet for President Nicolas Maduro's crisis-racked government.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay announced Venezuela was suspended from the group after accusations that the leftist government in Caracas failed to meet democratic and trade standards.

"This is a coup d'etat to Mercosur and constitutes a very grave attack on Venezuela," Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told a press conference.

Earlier, she railed against the decision in a tweet storm, calling it a "null and void action sustained by the law of the jungle of some officials who are destroying Mercosur."

Although Venezuela joined Mercosur in 2012, the other members complain it has yet to ratify a number of rules governing trade, politics, democracy and human rights.

Venezuela's neighbors are also becoming increasingly wary of developments in the once-booming oil exporter.

Maduro's critics blame him for an economic meltdown marked by food shortages, riots and looting.

The opposition also accuses the deeply unpopular president of trampling on democracy by throwing its leaders in jail and blocking its efforts to remove him constitutionally.

Venezuela has been hit hard by the plunge in global prices for its crucial crude oil exports since mid-2014, pummeling the government's socialist economic model.

Although not explicitly linked to the country's crisis, Mercosur's move Thursday represented the most significant gesture by a foreign entity against Maduro's leadership since the political crisis deepened this year.

Tension between Maduro's government and its Mercosur partners were exacerbated with the election of Mauricio Macri as president of Argentina in 2015 and the replacement of Brazil's impeached former president Dilma Rousseff with Michel Temer.

Both right-leaning leaders replaced leftist presidents. And both have attacked Maduro.

Macri has accused him of holding "political prisoners," while Temer has condemned the Venezuelan government as "authoritarian."

Macri and Temer's arrival marked a turning of the so-called "pink tide" of leftist leaders in Latin America that began in 1999 with the appearance of Maduro's late predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez.

The region is undergoing a political shake-up as many countries -- including Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela -- struggle with recessions.

Mercosur's founding members took over its rotating presidency in September to block Venezuela from the post.

But in a surreal turn, Venezuela insists it is still the group's president.

Rodriguez said Venezuela "will continue exercising the legitimate presidency (of Mercosur) and will participate with the right to speak and vote in all the meetings as a state party."

Argentina takes over the presidency in mid-December, which could give it a platform for further moves against Venezuela.

Rodriguez called on the people of the bloc's member countries to oppose what she described as the organization's hijacking by "intolerant bureaucrats" and "compromised officials with imperialist mandates."

Maduro has so far shown a steely determination to keep Venezuela in Mercosur whether its partners want it or not.

"If they kick us out the door," he has said, "we'll come back in through the window."

Beyond political embarrassment, Venezuela's suspension from the group cuts it out of free-trade agreements and will end the privileges its companies and citizens enjoyed in member countries.

Mercosur was founded in 1991 to promote economic integration among its members.

Venezuela was allowed to join as an act of solidarity among the left-wing governments in power at the time, said political analyst Gabriel Puricelli of Argentina.

But it never put in place the laws necessary to comply with Mercosur rules, he told AFP.

Now that right-wing governments are coming to power, "the political will has ceased to exist to keep (Venezuela) as a full member of the group despite the fact it is not complying with the norms," he said.</s>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — South American nations say they have suspended Venezuela from the Mercosur trade group over its failure to comply with its commitments when it joined the group in 2012.

Argentina's foreign ministry said in a statement Friday that Venezuela had failed to meet a Dec. 1 deadline to adopt certain standards required for membership. The foreign ministers of the four founding members— Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay — notified Venezuela's government of the decision in a letter.

Mercosur accepted Venezuela as a member when South America was dominated by leftist governments in an effort to link the region's biggest agricultural and energy markets.

But the socialist-run Venezuela has fallen afoul of its as it has cracked down on the opposition and conservative governments have assumed power in Argentina and Brazil.
Mercosur suspends Venezuela from the South American trading bloc for failing to meet membership requirements on trade and human rights.