CELAC joins Brazil and meets in a troubled political context | Entertainment | The USA Print

BUENOS AIRES

Under the call for greater regional integration, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) celebrates Tuesday in Buenos Aires its seventh summit marked by the reincorporation of Brazil to the forum and the ideological differences and political crises that afflict several South American countries.

When inaugurating the meeting with the representatives of 33 nations, Argentine President Alberto Fernández affirmed that “the time has come to make Latin America and the Caribbean a single region that defends the same interests” to achieve progress for its inhabitants.

The president gave an account of the initiatives taken by his government during the year 2022, in which he held the pro tempore presidency of CELAC, and stressed that he took “the voice of Latin America to all corners of the world.”

Fernández celebrated the return of Brazil to the political forum at the hands of its three-time president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva after his predecessor, the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, pushed the country away three years ago, alleging that it had become a stage that gave prominence to the leftist and “authoritarian” governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

“A CELAC without Brazil is a much emptier CELAC,” said Fernández.

The forum for political agreement was born in 2011 at the initiative of the then president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, to differentiate himself from the Organization of American States (OAS), questioned by him and other leftist leaders for his “alignment” with the United States.

Da Silva, a historic leftist leader who returned to power for the third time this month, arrived in Buenos Aires a day before the meeting with criticism directed at the Latin American right following the violent demonstrations by Bolsonaro supporters that occurred weeks ago at the headquarters of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers of Brasilia.

In this regard, Fernández – a staunch ally of Lula in the region – warned that democracy is at risk after sectors of the ultra-right “have stood up” in some countries and urged not to allow “the recalcitrant and fascist right to put the institutional framework at risk.

“We saw it a few days ago when madness reached the streets of Brasilia… and also here in Argentina when someone tried to kill our vice president (Cristina Fernández de Kirchner),” said Fernández, referring to the frustrated attack on the Peronist leader on September 1 for which three young people are arrested and prosecuted.

The CELAC meeting occurs at a turbulent time in South America, also as a result of the protests by political dissidents in Peru and Bolivia, to which Fernández did not refer.

Peru has suffered a wave of protests after Pedro Castillo was ousted and jailed in December after dissolving Congress. Demonstrations to demand the resignation of his replacement, Dina Boluarte, have left more than fifty dead.

In Bolivia there have also been protests after the arrest of the opposition leader and governor of the province of Santa Cruz, the right-wing Luis Fernando Camacho, at the end of December.

Fernández urged “respect ourselves in diversity” in reference to the criticism that the participation of the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in the meeting arouses among the Argentine opposition. “All those who are here have been chosen by their peoples,” said the president.

He also urged to “raise the voice” against the economic blockades that the United States applies to Cuba and Venezuela for being “a perverse method” against the peoples.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel participates in the meeting. His Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, withdrew amid requests from Argentine opponents to be detained for the arrest warrant against him in the United States for alleged drug trafficking and sent his foreign minister.

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, did not attend either and sent representatives of his government.