“Club of ideological friends”: the harsh definition that Luis Lacalle Pou gave of CELAC

The president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, this Tuesday he warned that organizations such as CELAC cannot do this “have the character of an ideological friends club”. It was a direct criticism of the presence of representatives of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in the forum taking place in Buenos Aires.

Lacalle Pou has said this on numerous occasions speeches are not put into action which are carried out in forums such as CELAC. In this sense, he stressed that the time had come to put the theory into practice.

“Why does this type of forum exist – he continued- you have to build hope. And hopes are generated on the path traveled, on the practice of action”.

The president warned that organizations like CELAC cannot “have the character of a club of ideological friends”.

He said, in turn, that “the alternation” will be the strength of the forum. “We are wrong to give CELAC an ideological nuance”He insisted.

On the other hand, without making explicit reference to any country, the president argued that some of the nations that are part of the CELAC They do not respect human rights.

“There is talk of respect for democracy, institutions and human rights (in the joint document that the members of the block will sign). But There are countries here that do not respect democracy, institutions or human rightssaid Lacalle Pou.

The president of the neighboring country asked not to have “a hemiplegic view of defense according to the ideological profile”.

At the previous CELAC summit in 2021, the president made the same criticism and specifically referred to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

Mario Abdo Benitez asked to address the situation of the Venezuelan diaspora

For his part, the President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez, urged the leaders participating in CELAC to addressr the situation experienced by the Venezuelan diaspora, a reality that “cannot be ignored”, rather it must be addressed” and for which a solution must be “searched for”, he underlined.

In his speech before the CELAC plenary, he called for a “sincere dialogue” and recalled that “as much as they worry” the acts of violence that took place in Peru and Brazil, The “massive exodus” from Venezuela is “also” worrying.

“We cannot look to one side, when more than seven million Venezuelans have left their homes asking for refuge” in the region, the Paraguayan president recalled in what was his last speech in this forum since his mandate expired this year.

Furthermore, Benítez recalled that, according to the UNHCR, Venezuelan migration is the second largest external displacement crisis in the world, after Syria.