Venezuela Seeks Brazil Support for Unasur Meeting on Unrest

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on Friday said his government has Brazil's support for a meeting of the South American Unasur group to discuss instability in his country.

Denouncing the protests that have swept Venezuela since February 4, leaving at least 17 dead, Jaua said Brazil had reacted positively to his call for a Unasur meeting.

"From here we shall leave for Surinam to formalize ... a request for a Unasur meeting to discuss this attack on democracy in Venezuela," Jaua said.

Suriname currently holds the regional alliance's rotating presidency.

Washington has criticized Caracas for arrests of anti-government demonstrators but Jaua said the protests were a plot by rightwing groups seeking to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro.

Jaua, on a swing through the region, held talks late Thursday on arrival from Uruguay with Brazilian counterpart Luiz Alberto Figueiredo.

Brazilian diplomatic sources made no mention of a potential meeting of the regional body.

Jaua, meanwhile, ruled out Caracas hosting Russian military bases on Venezuelan soil as he addressed comments attributed to Russia's defense minister earlier this week that Moscow hoped to increase its military presence abroad.

The Ria Novosti news agency said Venezuela was one of three Latin American countries, along with Cuba and Nicaragua, being considered.

But Jaua ruled out the idea.

"On constitutional grounds we cannot allow foreign military bases to be set up in our country," he told reporters in Brasilia.

The issue is a sensitive one in Latin America where a U.S.-Colombian security agreement giving U.S. forces access to bases in Colombia caused a storm several years ago.