CELAC summit: speeches behind closed doors and speculation in the corridors

In a hotel surrounded by police and fences, the leaders and representatives of the 33 countries that make up the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), discussed this Tuesday in Buenos Aires on a broad agenda focused on regional integration and the defense of democracies. But for hours the content of their speeches was a real mystery. Until after noon the first statements of one of the protagonists of the meeting: the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Throughout the morning the heads of state and government, or the foreign ministers who had come on their behalf, shut themselves up in a large room on the first floor of the Sheraton hotel in the Retiro.

A few meters away, in a crowded and noisy press room with an intermittent internet connection which made almost everyone nervous, local journalists and those who came from other Latin American and Caribbean countries wondered how and when it would be known what the leaders gathered here were going to say.

The Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, had warned at the beginning that “democracy is at risk” in the region, due to the advance of the “recalcitrant right”. And he had asked for applause for Brazil’s return to the stands.

In addition to Lula da Silva, the presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel; from Colombia, Gustavo Petro; from Chile, Gabriel Boric; from Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou; from Bolivia, Luis Arce and many others spoke.

But the content of their speeches remained within the walls of the room. The official match broadcast was on pause. The screens in the press room, where the greetings and speeches by Alberto Fernández and Cafiero had previously been broadcast, announced: “We will continue immediately”.

What did Lula say?

In the early afternoon, Lula da Silva’s statements began to be circulated, taken from the official press, the only one who could access the plenary session.

The leader of the Workers’ Party highlighted the value of integrating the region for a “peaceful world order” and the construction of a “multipolarity”.

“The region can clearly contribute to a peaceful world order, based on dialogue, the strengthening of multilateralism and the collective construction of multipolarity”, he said in his speech, in which he reiterated that Brazil “is back in the world”.

The 7th CELAC summit is marked by the return of Brazil to the regional body following Lula’s victory. His predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, withdrew from the country three years ago.

Ideological differences and speculations

In the morning, between cups of coffee and leftover croissants, newspaper, radio and TV reporters tried to unravel what was happening between the presidents.

A tense summit had been announced in the previous days, with ideological clashes and recriminations for the presence of representatives of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua Daniel Ortega had no intention of coming and Nicolás Maduro canceled his trip at the last minute – considered “dictators” by other forum members.

The version was circulating in the corridors that Maduro and the president of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador -another absentee who sent the chancellor, Marcelo Ebrard- They would send recorded messages.

In any case, they had already made their views known in messages across the networks or in statements in their countries.

From Caracas, the Chavista leader assured Tuesday that no “threat” will stop “the progressive wave that has risen in Latin America and the Caribbean”, in a message on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Mexican explained in his daily press conference that he missed the appointment due to scheduling problems. “There are many speculations about why I didn’t go, I have commitments in the country,” he justified.

Although there had been speculation about a distance between the Mexican government and the president of Argentina because both had run for president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), López Obrador he usually does not go to multilateral forums abroad.

“I agree with what will be proposed, there are many coincidences, there are more coincidences than the differences we could have,” said the Mexican president.

“We are in favor of all the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean, of the policies that are being followed, of an authentic democracy, against coups, both military and media, or legal, in quotation marks,” he remarked. And he said that Maduro “did very well” to cancel his presence to “avoid the provocations” of the “conservative” media in Argentina.

The wide ideological diversity in CELAC’s 33 member states, which includes centre-right presidents such as Uruguayan Lacalle Pou, amid a series of new centre-left governments in the region, such as those of Boric, Petro and, of course, Lula da Silva -to mention only South America- It is not unreasonable to imagine disagreements and recriminations.

But we will have to wait until the end of the day to find out if there have been clashes or if diplomacy has prevailed. The summit statement will be released after several meetings between delegations, after the plenary session and a lunch for leaders.