The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in the Kingstown Declaration, outlined several measures to be taken to achieve greater regional integration and development, such as cooperation in the health sector or the need for more air links or energy projects between countries, in a process in which this body will seek to play a fundamental role.
Complaints about the Israeli offensive in Gaza and criticism of dominant powers such as the United States followed one another during the summit, but the agreed declarations were rather watered down, emphasizing the call for “a fairer international financial system”.
Celac members avoided taking a position on the Essequibo conflict between Venezuela and Guyana, although they were generally in favor of respecting the sovereignty of states. “We commend the Provisional Chairmanship of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Brazil and the Caricom Chairmanship for organizing the Meeting for Dialogue and Peace between the Presidents of Guyana and Venezuela and welcome the resulting Argyle Declaration,” was the only reference in the final communication to one of the region’s major international disputes.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrived at the start of the meeting and promised to call elections in the second half of the year and to prepare a delegation of international observers “to participate in the process of preparing, holding and developing the presidential elections”.
In analyzing the eighth summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, we can highlight important statements by several of the region’s leaders, as well as attempts by other delegations to undermine unity, perhaps following extra-regional scripts.
The leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean commemorated the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace and defined their positions on the major global problems, as well as in defense of sovereignty and the right to self-determination, one of the central purposes of the existence of this forum, which brings together 33 countries of the continent, excluding the United States and Canada.
The presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Honduras, Xiomara Castro, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called for peace in the region without external interference, targeting major powers such as the United States.
The region’s leaders met to continue and deepen the 100-point agenda agreed at the 7th Summit held last year in Buenos Aires, where a roadmap for a new integration process was drawn up to “promote the unity and political, economic, social and cultural diversity of the peoples”.
Paradoxically, neither Argentine President Javier Milei nor Foreign Minister Diana Mondino attended the regional meeting. Until the arrival of the ultra-right Milei at the Casa Rosada on 10 December, Argentina played a central role in the consolidation of the regional mechanism created in 2011, a position that has only diminished during the presidency of the neoliberal Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
Despite the obstacles, the very fact that the Forum is taking place is a decision to support this Latin American-Caribbean political forum, an alternative to the discrediting and submission to the dictates of the United States government, which has reduced the Organization of American States, the sadly famous OAS, to irrelevance, especially since its Secretary General, the Uruguayan Luis Almagro, has been in charge.
To set the record straight, at the opening of the summit, the host of the event, the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, said that peace was anti-imperialist and anti-hegemonic and that any country in the region that wanted to support the war was supporting imperialism and hegemony. He spoke of the importance of supporting democracy and development in the world and warned against the ambitions of some states to tell others what to do.
Gonsalves urged people to seize the moment, work hard to promote the causes of the subcontinent and reach a consensus on positions that would allow the interests of its 600 million inhabitants to be defended with a single voice. For her part, Honduran President Xiomara Castro, who took over the presidency of CELAC pro tempore, stressed the importance of rejecting neo-colonial threats.
She also called for the ratification of the commitment that no people in Latin America and the Caribbean will ever use violence against a brother country, as well as the principle that the differences between nations ‘must be resolved among themselves, without interference or external pressure, using dialogue as a tool and always thinking of the regional well-being and self-determination of the peoples’.
As a sign of his contempt for this independent and sovereign forum, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa sent his ambassador to El Salvador on his behalf. Similarly, several presidents have left their representation to diplomatic officials who are used to attacking other countries, following Washington’s scripts and interests.
For example, Uruguay’s deputy foreign minister, Nicolás Albertoni, lashed out at the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro for banning candidate María Corina Machado from running in this year’s presidential elections.
Albertoni attacked not only Venezuela but also regional integration. He began his speech by criticizing previous Celac summits for their inability to produce good results. While stressing the opportunity to discuss issues such as the strengthening of democracy in the region, and respect for the rule of law and human rights, he assured that there were countries “that are not in the same boat”. And, indeed, there are still countries that respect the self-determination of peoples.
For his part, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, once again spoke out on one of the most sensitive issues for his country and the region: the failed war on drugs, imposed by Washington as the only way to tackle the problem of drug production for export to the superpower.
He pointed out that the anti-drug policy based on repression, prisons, police, and assassination, instead of prevention and public health, has produced the most dramatic and failed result possible: not only has drug trafficking never been reduced, but a genocide has been committed against one million Latin Americans, most of them from the most marginalized sectors of society.
Petro agreed with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in denouncing another genocide taking place before our eyes: that perpetrated by Benjamin Netanyahu’s neo-fascist regime against the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and both called for an end to the slaughter being carried out by the Zionist army against the Palestinian people.
Noboa is young, he has time to learn the spirit that animates Celac, to avoid diplomatic embarrassments such as the one he suffered when he offered to hand over to Washington Soviet-era weapons held by Ecuador. That deal, part of Washington’s campaign to provide arms to Ukraine, was canceled after Russia threatened to suspend purchases of bananas, one of Ecuador’s main exports, the industry of which is controlled by Noboa’s family.
Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena expressed her deep conviction that it is worth building bridges to overcome common obstacles together and that regional integration is urgent and irreplaceable. There is no other way than Latin American unity to advance towards peace, development, the fight against inequality and the well-being of peoples, she said.
The need for transformation
The redesign of the regional integration model has the support of several presidents, but it is also bombarded by those who still believe that they are the backyard of the United States. The group of presidential advisers that carried out a study on the functioning of the Celac concluded that this forum “is of no use to us in its current form” because it is only a meeting place without any executive capacity.
The idea under consideration is to bring together all the existing subregional forums under an umbrella organization and to create a “Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Ministry” (the General Secretariat was mentioned at the summit), similar to the office of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, to coordinate the work of the organization and ensure continuity between successive presidencies.
