Mexico to host CELAC summit
The Sixth Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will begin today in Mexico.
CELAC, co-founded by Hugo Chávez, is a Latin American and Caribbean intergovernmental organization that promotes policy-making without the influence of US hegemony or membership. The Organization of American States (OAS) serves a similar function; however, the US has a dominant presence.
Seventeen presidents and multiple senior officials from thirty-one countries will discuss the possibility of replacing the OAS with CELAC. The Mexican, Bolivian, and Venezuelan leftist presidents have voiced discontent with OAS, calling it an “interventionist” tool of the US. They have also clashed with OAS President Luis Almagro, suggesting that Almagro fomented a coup in Bolivia.
The likelihood of an OAS replacement is high, as a leftist “pink tide” is sweeping across Latin America. However, Colombia’s right-wing government wants to preserve the OAS to bolster ties with the US.
At the summit, expect leftist leaders to outline how an OAS replacement would assume OAS responsibilities. These decisions will be presented to the US and Canada in early 2022. In the medium-term, expect Chile and Colombia’s upcoming elections to influence whether OAS remains intact, gets replaced by CELAC, or by another intergovernmental organization.
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