The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is the result of more significant efforts at regional integration. This body’s constitution has not been well received by the United States and ultra-right Latin America, because it is the direct consequence of the understanding in the hemisphere that governments, like those of Brazil and Venezuela, believe that development occurs through the exercise of full sovereignty.

The integration of all of the area’s governments and the commitment of all its states is an achievement. Nevertheless, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States will be successful only to the extent that it succeeds in stripping the Organization of American States of the centrality on which the great powers insist. In order to complete this process, the influence of the region’s progressive governments should be increased. The United States will collaborate with allied powers and will use the services of the far right to prevent the Organization of American States from being superseded. This should not surprise us.

Mexican president Felipe Calderon and the ultra-right Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos no longer want the two organizations to remain as distinct entities. This is also the position of Sebastian Pinera of Chile and Panama’s Ricardo Martinelli. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa believes, however, that the Organization of American States is worn and says that Latin America’s problems should not be discussed in Washington.

Canada and the United States are not part of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and it’s not just a matter of geography. Canadian and U.S. interests have collaborated more than once in retarding the political advancement of our people. One must not wipe from memory centuries of interference, invasions and imperialistic exercises in its various manifestations.

U.S. State Department [Deputy] Spokesperson Mark Toner said, “There are many sub-regional organizations in the hemisphere. We belong to some and not others. … We continue to work through OAS, which is the preeminent multilateral organization that speaks for the hemisphere.”

Organization of American States provided a platform for isolating Cuba in the 1960s. At every opportunity, it has redesigned its guidelines to legitimize interference and intervention.

In the 1990s, the United States showed no hostility to the efforts of numerous Latin American presidents (Jose Maria Figueres Olsen, Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen, and Leonel Fernandez, among others), who stressed the need to “sell” the region and privatize everything.

If today the United States and right wing Latin America challenge the rise of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, it is because they perceive it as a hole in their boot. They want to maintain colonies and control them. Perhaps it’s worth mentioning here the words of Mario Benedetti: “The motto is to live in spite of them.”