The 33 nations of CELAC celebrate the VII summit in Buenos Aires

The VII summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will open today in Buenos Aires and will be the first to be attended by representatives of the 33 nations that are part of the forum. The meeting will be marked by the return of Brazil to the bloc and, therefore, by the total representation of all the countries that make up the bloc for the first time in history. According to Telam, the sessions will have the confirmed presence of more than 15 leaders, among which, in addition to the host president, Alberto Fernández, will be Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Gabriel Boric (Chile), Luis Arce (Bolivia), Xiomara Castro (Honduras), Mia Mottley (Barbados), Mario Abdo Benítez (Paraguay), Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay) and Miguel Díaz-Canel (Cuba). In this way, the opening of the forum will be held from 10 a.m. and will be headed by the Argentine president, in his role as head of the regional mechanism, and then give way to a presentation by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, who will review the work carried out by the Pro Tempore Presidency (PPT) of Argentina throughout 2022. The plenary of heads of state will be held behind closed doors, after which the traditional “family photo” will be held and then the honor lunch that will be offered at the Sheraton Hotel to the delegations participating in the summit. In addition, there will be a second debate session between the leaders, which will have as one of the central axes to decide which country will succeed Argentina at the head of CELAC. At the moment, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (located in the southern Caribbean and north of Venezuela) is the only formal candidate to occupy the PPT of the forum during the year that has just begun. Among the main topics that will be discussed at the forum will be the political turbulence in Peru, the impact implied by the events that occurred in Brazil a week after Lula’s inauguration, the consolidation of the region as a space of unity in diversity and its integration with higher levels of inclusion and development. Although the 33 nations that make up Celan will have their representatives participating in the Buenos Aires summit, not all the national leaders will be present since some sent other officials as delegates. This is the case of Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, who will send his foreign minister, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), who usually delegates international commitments to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard. by denouncing plans “of the neo-fascist right”. At the same time, the Peruvian Dina Boluarte (Peru) will not attend either, in the midst of the strong crisis and protests that her country is going through; and to it is added the absence of Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador and in his place will come Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín.

Original source in Spanish