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 Venezuela may need to apologize to Brazil's Congress if it wants to join Mercosur cautioned Brazil's Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim in an interview published Thursday in Brazilian capital Brasília.
In May, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blasted the Brazilian Congress for criticizing his decision not to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, knocking the opposition-aligned station off the air.
Mercosur leaders have approved Venezuela's entry into the bloc, but the deal must still be passed by Brazilian and Paraguayan legislators. The legislatures of Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuelan already have given their approval.
"A goodwill gesture is needed," Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told O Globo newspaper. "No one expects an act of self flagellation from Venezuela, but a positive gesture toward Congress is necessary."
Chavez called Brazil's Congress a "pirate's parrot" of the United States and added: "It would be easier for the Portuguese empire to once again be established in Brazil than for Venezuela's government to return the concession (to RCTV)."
Several Brazilian Senators favor blocking Venezuela's Mercosur entry arguing the country does not comply with a clause calling for Mercosur nations to commit themselves to democracy.
Chavez is visiting Russia and will not attend the Mercosur summit going on right now in Paraguay. The South American trade block will consider his proposal for a regional development bank, "Bank of the South", an alternative source of development funds.
In recent weeks Chavez has criticized "oligarchies" in several Mercosur member countries that are purportedly opposed to Venezuela's entry in the bloc.
Also Thursday, Brazil's Lower House postponed approving two agreements recently signed with Venezuela, saying Chavez's government had shown a "lack of respect" toward the Brazilian Congress."
According to the Brazilian House of Representatives' website, one of the accords prevents double taxation on profits of companies operating in both countries. The other calls for cooperation in communications.
Mercopress
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
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Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
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While I am no big fan of Chavez, do you think that our senators with all these scandals revolving around them, have any moral to give an ultimatum to him? I think that they have to put their house in order before giving instructions to Chavez who is fully capable of hitting back,by asking the same question as mine,though in a more flowery terms.
Besides, why is our congress so interested in defending the interests of RCTV? Something very fishy.