Progressive leaders from Latin America gathered in Mexico on September 30, to discuss further regional integration, combating climate change, a regional currency and opposing sanctions. Tamara Pearson reflects on the contrasts with earlier gatherings at the height of the "Pink Tide".
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)
Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service reports that the leaders of 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries took part in a virtual summit against inflation, on April 5, called by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
CELAC member countries signed the Buenos Aires declaration to make Latin America and the Caribbean a community of sovereign nations, reports Tanya Wadhwa.
Movement leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean meet ahead of CELAC summit in Argentina
More than 300 leaders of social organisations, unions and people’s movements from across Latin America and the Caribbean gathered ahead of the CELAC meeting, reports Fernanda Paixão.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and other ministers from the region kicked off a special session of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), on May 2 in San Salvador to discuss recent violence in the South American country.
The 2016 summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) began on January 26 with the meeting of foreign ministers and chancellors of the Latin American nations at the headquarters of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in Mitad del Mundo, Quito, Ecuador.
CELAC, a regional body involving all nations in the Americas except for the United States and Canada, was officially created in Caracas in 2011 under the leadership of then-Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa announced on May 16 that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will provide assistance to the thousands of Asian immigrants stranded off the coast of Thailand.
“This world is crazy, it shows a total disregard for human life to have people stranded on a boat, dying of starvation without being allowed to get off the boat,” Correa stated during his weekly presidential address.
A second round of talks between US and Cuban diplomats began in Washington on February 27, with the aim of restoring diplomatic relations.
US President Barack Obama announced, in what he termed the most significant Cuba policy shift in more than 50 years, that he will pursue diplomatic relations and urge Congress to dismantle the US blockade of Cuba.
A special commission of the two largest associations of Latin American nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC, which includes all of the Latin America and the Caribbean) and Union of South American Nations(UNASUR, which represents South American countries) met to discuss US attacks on Venezuelan democracy in a February 11 meeting.
Held in Montevideo, Uruguay, to analyse the relationship between the United States and Venezuela as well as the situation inside Venezuela, the joint commission was convened at the request of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuela rejects new US sanctions
The Venezuelan government rejected aggressive new US-imposed sanctions on February 3, TeleSUR English said that day, insisting the measures flout international law.
Venezuela's foreign ministry said in a statement: “The people of Venezuela ratifies its independence and sovereignty. We do not recognise … interference of any kind by foreign powers.”
It accused the US of “violating the principles of national sovereignty, equal rights and non-interference in the internal affairs inherent in international law”.