By Por Ángel Guerra Cabrera on September 23, 2021
The VI Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), held in Mexico, was an undoubted success for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Mexican diplomacy. Only a government as prestigious and respected for its great popular support, its independence in foreign policy and the spirit of cooperation with which it deals with conflicts, as the current Mexican government, enjoyed the necessary leadership to assume the pro tempore presidency of the 32-member organization and relaunch it towards its full functioning in a region with such ideologically heterogeneous leaders. The deferential and friendly reception of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to speak as guest of honor at Mexico’s central independence ceremony and the magnificent speeches delivered by him and his host López Obrador, as well as the surprise arrival of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, created a very auspicious atmosphere for the start of the summit. The three of them, together with their counterparts Luis Arce (Bolivia), Pedro Castillo (Peru) and the prime ministers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, Ralph Gonsalves and Roosevelt Skerrit, also contributed greatly to giving it substance and direction.
Mexico Rescued CELAC
CELAC came to be in intensive care as a result of the Monroist positions of rejection of unity, integration and solidarity of our American governments such as Mauricio Macri, Pedro Pablo Kuczynsky, Jair Bolsonaro, Ivan Duque and other unpresentable governments of the region, in the best of cases indifferent to those objectives. Bolsonaro went to the extreme of taking Brazil out of the organization. Remember how, together with the traitor Lenín Moreno, they dissolved Unasur and even removed the statue erected to Néstor Kirchner from its former headquarters in Quito.
With these developements, the annual Celac summits ceased to be held in 2017 and it was undoubtedly the arrival of popular governments in Mexico (2018), Argentina (2019), the restoration of democracy in Bolivia (2020) as well as the firm unity among the Alba-TCP governments, which created the right environment for its forceful relaunching, the result of a consensus patiently carved for months by Mexico. It is worth remembering that the key to the functioning of Celac is “unity in diversity”, emphasizing what unites and not what divides between openly right-wing governments and popular, left-wing or socialist governments, which are called to cooperate and work together on many issues of common interest. In the process of rescuing Celac, Mexico put at the center the fight against the pandemic, the production of vaccines in the region and their delivery to the neediest countries and the project of a Latin-Caribbean space agency, already approved. With the same dedication, it managed to reach consensus on a substantive 44-point Final Declaration, respectful of the different points of view, the tradition and the documentary heritage of the organization and its predecessors: the Rio Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Summits held in Mexico (2010) and Caracas (2011), the latter being the foundational one, presided by Hugo Chávez.
The Mexico City Declaration is a magnificent document, which takes into account the issues mentioned, it is repeatedly inscribed in the compliance by the Member States of international law in accordance with the UN Charter and other fundamental instruments of international law. In that regard, it advocates “the sovereign equality of States, the peaceful settlement of disputes, international cooperation for development, respect for territorial integrity and non-intervention in the internal affairs of States. It reaffirms its commitment to the defense of sovereignty and the right of every State to build its own political system, free from threats, aggressions and unilateral coercive measures in an environment of peace, stability, justice, democracy and respect for human rights”.
In a context such as this, it is only natural that acts of provocation were whipped up by Washington, such as the defamatory diatribes of the presidents of Uruguay and Paraguay against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, whom Maduro and Díaz-Canel subsequently put them in their place but without giving them the opportunity to divert the meeting from its course. The summit also addressed the issue of climate change, agreed on a common fund to attend to natural disasters, which this phenomenon is increasing and, among others it adopted a strong special resolution calling on the United States to lift the blockade on Cuba. Finally, it laid the foundations for the new presidency to be elected to work on solid ground. Of great significance is the warm message addressed by the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, announcing a new stage in the relations of the Asian giant with CELAC at the end of the summit.
Source: La Pupila Insomne, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English