Celac Summit in Honduras: Another Lost Opportunity
Amidst the tariff wars, the regional body opted for belligerent rhetoric instead of practical proposals.
By Yoani Sanchez (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – In times of crisis, alliances are put to the test. The worst moments subject the relations between nations to stresses that will either break them or reinforce them. The IX Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), held in Tegucigalpa Honduras on April 9th, has demonstrated that Latin America still lacks the diplomatic maturity to stand up as a bloc in the face of difficult contexts.
Confronted with the tariff war Washington has unleashed, the regional body opted to respond with belligerent rhetoric instead of putting forth practical proposals.
Lack of a common strategy
The regional meeting, which includes 33 countries, has left evident the lack of a common strategy to face up to the new economic pressures and the massive deportations of migrants. None of this is surprising in a Celac that has structured itself more around political interests and ideological affinities than as an organism to represent the interests of the millions of inhabitants of this part of the world. Given the choice between articulating joint actions to alleviate the commercial tariffs, or putting their hands to work drafting empty pronouncements, they chose the latter.
The Tegucigalpa Declaration was signed and adopted by 30 member States in the Community, a declaration that will be forgotten as quickly as the contrails of the departing presidential airplanes vanish in the skies. The insipid text underlines their support for “democracy and the rule or law, multilateralism, the protection and promotion of all human rights”, even though the ranks of the organization include three of the hemisphere’s great dictatorships: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
While Europe meets to forge agreements on how to respond to the new trade challenges, the Latin American leaders have preferred to pose for the family photo as uncompromising and vociferous, even though many of them are already negotiating with the White House in murmurs and alone. The meeting in Honduras also failed to address a regional plan to improve the quality of life of those young people who seek to realize their dreams on the other side of the Rio Grande mainly because they lack opportunities in their countries of origin.
This has also been a gathering for the spotlight and for political posturing. At times, it gave the impression that every new president that spoke into the microphone was striving to outdo his predecessor in displaying verticality and bellicosity towards the US.
A new lost occasion
Among the excessive displays of righteous posing was the spectacle of Cuban ruler Miguel Diaz-Canel denouncing the arrest of immigrants in US territory as: “without respect to due process, without demonstrating guilt, and in harshly repressive conditions .”
The same man who on July 11, 2021 asserted before the national television cameras that an order for combat had been issued against the protestors of that day now declares himself concerned about the possible arbitrary detentions of those who had to flee the island, precisely because of his repressive excesses.
After frowning for the cameras, repeating the well-worn slogans, and signing the final declaration, the IX Celac Summit has concluded, having let another occasion slip through their fingers. It’s the umpteenth crossroads in which the regional organism demonstrated its inability to embody the urgent needs and dreams of an entire continent.
Published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
Albeit touched upon in the post above, it is worth restating how unimaginably hypocritical the speech was that was given by Diaz-Canel from Cuba. How any of the Caribbean leaders listening to that speech kept a straight face is notable. Cuba’s overfed dictator (As long as Raul Castro lives, is Diaz-Canel really in charge?) spoke about how the US economy is using tariffs as a distraction to hide it’s failures. Diaz-Canel spoke of the resilience of the Cuban people. Mind you, these are the same Cuban people who have emigrated to other countries to the tune of more than 250,000 people in the last 3 years. The Cuban also blowhard spoke of increasing foreign investments in Cuba when the real news coming out of Havana is the dictatorship’s recent announcement about prohibiting foreign companies from being able to repatriate business profits out of the country. It’s hard to believe that these Latin American leaders are really this stupid but what else could it be?