kirchner was part of the "pink tide", a group of populist, left-wing presidents who ruled several latin american countries in the 2000s. this group included, among others, néstor and cristina kirchner in argentina, hugo chávez and nicolás maduro in venezuela, luiz inácio lula da silva and dilma rousseff in brazil, evo morales in bolivia and rafael correa in ecuador. kirchner has been an unconditional supporter of chávez and maduro. as paraguay rejected the incorporation of venezuela into the mercosur trade bloc, she took advantage of the impeachment of fernando lugo to claim that paraguay had suffered a coup d'état and proposed to temporarily remove the country from the bloc. with the support of the other presidents, paraguay was removed for a time, and venezuela was incorporated into the mercosur. she maintained her support of venezuela even during the large 2014 venezuela protests and the imprisonment of its leader, leopoldo lópez.