Celac: a summit marked by ideological conflicts and calls for the defense of democracy

With calls for greater regional integration and the defense of democracy, the leaders of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) met this Tuesday in Buenos Aires in a summit characterized by the return of Brazil to the blockade and due to ideological disagreements, at a time of upheaval in several South American countries.

The great protagonist of this meeting attended by leaders and representatives of the 33 member countries was the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who returned to this forum after slamming the door of his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro in 2019.

With notable absences, such as that of the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, who canceled his visit at the last minute after announcing a plan by the “extreme right” to attack him, the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega and the Mexican Andrés Manuel López, who denounced programming problems , the meeting At times it was tense as expected.

“Brazil has returned to the region and is ready to work side by side with all of you, with a very strong sense of solidarity and closeness”, said Lula, in one of the first speeches released to the press, in the middle of a forthcoming summit closed in which only the opening speech by Argentine President Alberto Fernández and Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero was broadcast live.

The far-right Bolsonaro had suspended Brazil’s participation in CELAC on the grounds that it gave “importance to undemocratic regimes such as those in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua”.

Lula took advantage of the event to “thank everyone” for having supported Brazilian institutions after the attack by Bolsonarist radicals on the headquarters of the three state powers in Brasilia, on January 8 in Brasilia.

Previously, the Argentine president, host and holder of the pro tempore presidency of CELAC, had been harsher, accusing a “recalcitrant and fascist right” of threatening democracy in the region.

Lula highlighted the “multiple crises” the world is experiencing, from pandemics to climate change, from geopolitical tensions to food insecurity, or threats to democracy.

Indeed, the CELAC summit takes place in a context of multiple internal crises in Latin American countries, with protests in Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela, and tensions between neighbors and partners that were reflected this Tuesday in Sheraton hotel rooms.

The regimes of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba have come under criticism of different leaders, for their repression of any dissent. Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, has also received a hail of reproaches for the harsh police response to marches that have not stopped in her country since the removal and jailing of former president Pedro Castillo after his failed self-coup attempt , in December .

It is worth mentioning that the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira said so clarion As soon as Lula returned to power on January 1, he deemed Daniel Ortega and Nicolás Maduro dictators for their persecution of opponents.

critics

Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou was one of the first to raise his voice. In this bloc there are countries that “do not respect institutions, democracy or human rights”, he said, and warned that organizations like CELAC cannot “have the character of a club of ideological friends”.

But Criticisms of Ortega and Boluarte have also come from the centre-left. Chilean President Gabriel Boric has called for the release of the “oppositionists still unworthily detained” in Nicaragua and assured that Peru needs a “change of course” in the face of the “unacceptable” violence of the last month.

“We cannot be indifferent when today in our sister nation of Peru, people who go out to march and demand what they consider right end up being shot by whoever is supposed to defend them,” Boric said before the bloc’s plenary. And he stressed “the urgency of a change of direction in Peru.

“The balance that the path of repression and violence has left is unacceptable,” he added.

Boric, who has harshly criticized the region’s authoritarian regimes since he came to power, also referred to the crisis in Venezuela and called for the country’s return “in multinational forums”.

“The policy of exclusion does not offer authentic and lasting results. This is demonstrated by the history of our Latin America and the Caribbean with the ignominious blockade of Cuba by the United States and more recently by Venezuela,” he said.

Right away, called for “free, fair and transparent” elections in Venezuela by 2024 and expressed his government’s willingness to “collaborate in the dialogue between the various sectors of the country to find a way out” of the crisis.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called for his part in strengthening the inter-American system for the protection of human rights and has called for Venezuela’s return to that forum.

Furthermore, he called for a “democratic compact in which the right and the left do not believe that when they come to power it is to physically eliminate their opponent”, and He stressed that in Latin America “there must not be a single political prisoner”.

While he didn’t mention them explicitly, it was clear he was referring to Nicaragua, where the Ortega regime has imprisoned nearly every politician who tried to confront him in the elections he ended up winning amidst controversy in November 2021. And perhaps Cuba, which jailed dozens of protesters during anti-government protests in July 2021.

Mexican López Obrador sent a message underlining the “repression” in Peru and for the freedom of former president Castillo.

“We must not leave the brotherly people of Peru alone, what they did with Pedro Castillo and the way they are repressing the people was a disgrace,” he said in a video message sent to the Buenos Aires Summit.

Between calls for integration, climate crisis alerts, food security and another set of regional issues, the differences were evident at this meeting. And the challenges of achieving the long-awaited cooperation.