To the relief of the national government, the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) It was carried out without any fright and Argentina said goodbye to the pro tempore presidency in the hands of the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves.
With a certain secrecy during the day, the heads of state and government, their delegations and other guests paraded through the Sheraton hotel in Buenos Aires, before a multitude of journalists, cameramen and photographers. The only thing missing was the presence of one of the 33 that make up the intergovernmental mechanism: Nicolas Maduro, who declined the invitation that Alberto Fernández had made him for fear of being arrested.
The physical absence of the president of Venezuela, who is under investigation for human rights violations, deactivated some of the planned protests in front of the venue of the meeting in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires. On the other side of the fence, his chancellor, Yvan Gil Pinto, took notes during the inaugural speech of the then president pro tempore of Celac, Alberto Fernandez. His pulse quickened following the outrage by the Argentine president in which he confused Celac with the Summit of the Americas, held last year in the city of Los Angeles.
Celac versus OAS
The Argentine president quickly corrected himself and was replaced by the second speaker, santiago cafierowho shortly following had to clarify a scandal that broke out during the plenary session and splashed it on the side, following a private conversation was leaked from his Chilean counterpart present at the summit, Antonia Urrejola, in which together with part of his team they questioned the Argentine ambassador Rafael Bielsa.
Returning to the failed Fernández. Without wanting to, the Argentine president would give rise to one of the debates that persisted during the plenary session: the narrative that sustains the ideological opposition between the United States, on the one hand, and its detractors, on the other, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. An issue that divides the region and bothered the leaders who maintained ambivalent positions.
On this subject he spoke Luis Lacalle Pou, another of the protagonists of the day. The Uruguayan president was one of the few who came out following lunch to give statements to the press, he surprised just at the moment when the cafe in the Pampa Room of the hotel was being renovated. In an impromptu conference, the president specified that his country will advance in the agreement with China “with or without Mercosur” and asked “not to return to the ideological clubs”.
“Some discourses have a deep ideological content that is understandable and respectable. If I believe that any organism, space that is generated, if what unites them is ideology, it is short-lived. If it is short-lived, it does not generate trust. Short steps and concrete that give sustenance but they are a political group that return to their houses and nothing happened”, affirmed Lacalle Pou. The person in charge of lowering the tone of the Uruguayan’s statements was the head of the Colombian state, Gustavo Petro. who After 6:00 p.m., he gave a press conference.
Maduro’s virtual participation
For his part, from Caracas, Maduro raised the need to transform Celaca forum for political consultation, in an international body similar to the Organization of American States (OAS), under the orbit of the United States and claimed by that country, which also called for “strengthening integration” in the previous to the Latin American and Caribbean summit.
“I ratified the proposal that CELAC have its own organizational structure, with a powerful General Secretariat“Maduro asserted when participating virtually. “There will be no threat or aggression that can stop the progressive wave that has risen in Latin America and the Caribbean,” he added.
Although the Mexican Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador valued the group of “all the countries” of America, including the Anglo-Saxons, as he declared before traveling to Argentina, a large part of the progressive governments of Latin America questioned the organization led by Luis Almagro for his inaction during the political crisis that forced the departure of Evo Morales in 2019.
The return of Brazil
Lula da Silva He was cautious regarding issues that cause divisions such as the legitimacy of the government of Dina Boluarte in Peru or the crisis in Venezuela, especially following the cancellation of the bilateral agreement with Maduro. “Brazil didn’t like the fact that Venezuela got out of the bilateral agreement”, indicated foreign ministry sources without giving more details regarding the underlying reasons. In what will be the second country to visit following taking office on January 1, Lula will meet in Montevideo with the Uruguayan Lacalle Pou, a key meeting for the future of Mercosur.
“Strength, Peru”
In the vicinity of the hotel, dozens of protesters asked the Latin American representatives for a solution to the political crisis in Peru that has already killed more than 60 since it erupted in December 2022. “Let’s defend democracy. strength peru“, read one of the banners. Others directly pointed once morest the president Dina Boluarte: “There is no dialogue with a government that murders”; “Crimes once morest humanity are being committed.”
The crisis unleashed in Peru following the dismissal of Pedro Castillo and the inauguration of his vice president was one of the hot spots of the day, despite the fact that the issue was absent from the Buenos Aires Declaration, the final document of the seventh summit of CELAC. The Colombian Gustavo Petro, in a press conference, questioned the indefinite detention of the former Peruvian president. “How can there be a president imprisoned without a sentence, who has lost his constitutional functions?” He questioned, while AMLO described the detention as “unfair”.
CD / ED
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