CELAC: Working for the peoples

By María Josefina Arce

The Seventh Summit of Heads of State and Government of CELAC, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, opens its doors in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, with the satisfaction of the full reincorporation of Brazil to the regional integration mechanism.

This was one of Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva's first international actions after assuming the presidency on the first day of the year. His predecessor in the Planalto Palace, Jair Bolsonaro, had withdrawn the country from CELAC in 2020.

Argentina, pro tempore president of the bloc, described the return of the South American giant as a transcendental fact for the strengthening of one of the most representative mechanisms for dialogue in the region, of which Brazil is one of the states that participated in its creation.

Without impositions or external interference, the bloc has worked since its inception for the rapprochement and unity of the 33 countries of the area, for the benefit of the more than 600 million Latin Americans and Caribbeans.

Since 2020, in the midst of a complex panorama due to the COVID 19 pandemic, a process of revitalization began, thanks to the actions of Mexico at the head of the organization, to which Argentina has given continuity since it assumed the pro tempore presidency in 2022.

Buenos Aires has worked in favor of the health strategy and the economic and productive recovery of the region, in the face of the crisis generated by the disease caused by the new coronavirus, which had a strong impact in Latin America and the Caribbean.

At the head of the integration mechanism, Argentina emphasized the search for joint, solidarity-based policies and actions to reduce poverty and inequalities, a major challenge in the complex world scenario.

The Climate Adaptation and Comprehensive Response to Natural Disasters Fund, approved in September 2021, was another of the aspects that focused the work of the South American nation, given the danger that climate change represents for the whole world and especially for the island states of the Caribbean, highly vulnerable to this phenomenon.

CELAC has been the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean in various forums. At the head of the organization, Argentina has ratified its commitment to the construction of a fairer, more equitable and harmonious international order, based on respect for international law, multilateralism and the principles and purposes of the UN Charter.

Its support for Cuba's struggle for the lifting of the genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States for the last sixty years against the Cuban people has been essential.

It has strongly condemned the destabilizing actions of the right wing against democratic governments in the area and the plans to exclude countries in the continent.  On behalf of CELAC, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernandez, criticized in the U.S. city of Los Angeles the absence of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the so-called Summit of the Americas, organized last June by the United States.

The Seventh Summit of Heads of State and Government of CELAC is another opportunity to discuss the concerns of the peoples of the region and join efforts to advance their welfare, a principle and objective of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.