Uruguay’s Foreign Minister, Francisco Bustillo, had to leave Tuesday the summit of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) bloc, which is being held in Montevideo, after being admitted to hospital with a thrombosis.
Sources close to the matter have indicated that, in his place, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Ache, has attended the meetings held in the margins of the summit.
Bustillo, who did participate in the first day of the summit held on Monday, has been hospitalized for a thrombosis in his leg, although it is not serious, according to the newspaper ‘El Observador’.
Now, the head of Uruguay’s diplomacy is undergoing medical tests a day after he lashed out against the bloc and said it is «destined to failure and irrelevance» if it does not include a «flexibilization» and modernization.
«If we do not allow ourselves to even question the here and now, our bloc will be irremediably condemned to failure. (…) We are what we wanted to be, an imperfect free trade zone,» he said.