BUENOS AIRES: Venezuela's foreign minister invited herself Wednesday to a meeting of the South American economic bloc Mercosur, whose other members have suspended her country for failing to meet democratic and trade standards.
Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pushed her way through a crowd of riot police and journalists to enter the Argentine foreign ministry in Buenos Aires, where the extraordinary meeting was held.
"These (Mercosur) presidents insist Venezuela can't participate," she said at a brief news conference outside the building. "Well, we'll come in through the window because we're here to defend Venezuela's rights and also defend the rights of Mercosur."
She later tweeted a picture of herself inside the conference room.
But her colleagues -- who had explicitly said Venezuela was not invited -- excluded her from the meeting, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra said.
The other Mercosur countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- had suspended Venezuela earlier this month for failing to ratify rules on trade, politics, democracy and human rights.
In a surreal turn, Venezuela insists it still holds Mercosur's rotating presidency -- a claim Rodriguez reiterated Wednesday.
But Malcorra said Argentina had in fact taken over the presidency at the meeting.
Venezuela's neighbors are becoming increasingly wary of developments in the once-booming oil giant.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has presided over an economic meltdown marked by food shortages, riots and looting.
The opposition accuses the deeply unpopular president of trampling on democracy by throwing its leaders in jail and blocking efforts to remove him constitutionally.
The Mercosur suspension represents the international community's biggest rebuke of Maduro's government since the political crisis deepened this year.
Venezuela joined Mercosur in 2012, when fellow leftist governments held sway across the region.
But the political tide has turned amid a regional recession, and Maduro now faces sharp criticism from center-right presidents Michel Temer in Brazil and Mauricio Macri in Argentina.
Wednesday's meeting was called to discuss the regional impact of the Venezuelan crisis and progress toward signing a trade deal with the European Union.