WTF is Going on in Latin America:  CELAC 2023-LatAm Integration includes the Voices of the People
Channel: CODEPINK
Date: 2023-01-27

EPISODE:  CELAC 2023-Latin American Integration  the includes the Voices of the People

GUEST:  Alejandro Rusconi, Secretary of International Relations for Evita Movement

BACKGROUND:
Founded in 2011,.CELAC, or the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, is a multilateral group of 33 countries from across the Western Hemisphere that excludes Canada and the United States  It was created to be an alternative forum for Latin American countries.  Inaugural leaders, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, envisioned the group as a counterweight to the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS), which they viewed as dominated by the United States. CELAC, unlike the OAS, allows Cuba to be a member. Its stated goals are to promote regional integration and cooperation. CELAC represents 600 million people.

The Seventh Summit of CELAC leaders was held Tuesday, January 24 in Buenos Aires and hosted by CELAC President Pro-Tempore Alberto Fernandez, current President of Argentina.

The 111-point "Declaration of Buenos Aires" from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States' (CELAC) summit described how effects of COVID-19, climate change and the war in Ukraine had rippled across the region.  "We express our concern that several countries emerged from the pandemic with higher levels of public debt," it said.

Additionally, the seventh summit witnessed two firsts:  

 1.  At the invitation of President Fernandez, the United States was invited and sent US Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas Christopher Dodd 

2.  The Summit was preceded by a joint proposal of social and trade union organizations. With the presence of about 300 leaders of social organizations, unions and popular movements from all over the region, the meeting was a forum to discuss the most relevant issues affecting the different countries in the context of the Conference of Heads of State and Government.

FOLLOW OUR GUEST:

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ale_rusconi

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

CELAC
https://celacinternational.org/

Declaracion de Buenos Aires
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZzH6dlDk2XFOUm0rxbrlFmmH22kWfOn0/view?usp=share_link

Social and Union Organizations Meet the Day before the CELAC Summit in Argentina
https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2023/01/23/social-and-union-organizations-meet-the-day-before-the-celac-summit-in-argentina?bdf=t

Argentina Hosts 7the CELAC Summit amid New Presidential Landscape
https://www.as-coa.org/articles/argentina-hosts-7th-celac-summit-amid-new-presidential-landscape

Argentina and Brazil Relaunch their Strategic Alliance
https://twitter.com/casarosada/status/1617686401713336321?s=46&t=iw4c_fjJiWcLVUQIL8WTPQ

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.