The alternate "OAS" is taking shape in Caracas

[rabs]

Another step to independence.

Don't know if this has been reported in the English-language media.

Foreign ministers from throughout South, Central, and North (Mexico only) America began meeting in Caracas on Monday.

They are putting the final touches on what will be known as the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (Celac).

It will be a parallel version of the always U.S.-puppet-managed OAS based in Washington. Two nations will NOT be included in the Community, the UNITED STATES and CANADA.

The presidents and prime ministers of all the Latin American and Caribbean nations are scheduled to meet in Caracas on July 5 when the CELAC will officially be inaugurated. It is expected that the headquarters for the Community will be in Caracas.

One of the main pillars on the new organization will be regional consensus to prevent/condemn in the region any coup d' etat as happened in Honduras and almost in Quito last year.

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Another subject at the meeting; on Tuesday the foreign ministers were working on a resolution calling for a diplomatic solution in the Libyan conflict. A Libyan delegation arrived in Caracas on Monday to try to gather support for a ceasefire/truce.

The resolution was sent to the home governments on Tuesday for guidance and approval. If it is approved, the text should be available in the next 24 hours or so.

[Peace Patriot]

1. Wow! I wasn't aware that CELAC was so close to being formalized!

The last I heard of it was, I think, more than a year ago. Daniel Ortega/Nicaragua had proposed it in some Latin American forum. And I have heard nothing since. In fact, I thought it had been tabled or abandoned--and that work on economic/political integration was reverting to existing institutions--UNASUR in South America, ALBA in Central America/the Caribbean--and would take a good while to mature into all-Latin American unity.

I am so glad to see this! Thanks so much for posting it!

Caracas makes sense as a central location. UNASUR is headquartered in La Paz, Bolivia--a bit far for Central American/Caribbean delegates to travel. I don't know where ALBA's headquarters are, if it has one. Caracas also makes sense in other ways. Venezuela was really the pioneer both of the leftist democracy movement in Latin America, and of the economic/political integration movement, with their early help to other countries struggling out of U.S. "Neo-liberal" ruination, such as Argentina. They really created the "raise all boats" philosophy that became the basis of the Chavez/Lula da Silva alliance and friendship. Venezuela deserves this honor, as Bolivia deserves UNASUR, since UNASUR's swift and united action--its first official action, really--backing up Evo Morales in his courageous decision to throw the U.S. ambassador out of Bolivia, helped save Bolivia from the white separatist insurrection and the split-up of the country. UNASUR being in La Paz is a great unifying symbol. And CELAC being in Caracas is an equally unifying symbol, considering the U.S. corporate/war profiteer hatred of, and menacing attitude, toward the Chavez government and the Pentagon buildup in the region with its military installations forming an arc over Venezuela's Caribbean oil coast and northern oil provinces--not to mention that Venezuela was the first victim of a U.S. coup attempt in Latin America in this century.

Well, CHEERS! You've made my day!

:bounce: :toast: :bounce:

[rabs]

3. Yes, we had discussed this more than a year ago in this forum ...

... when it was announced at a Latin American/Caribbean meeting in Cancun

The Cuban foreign minister at the meeting in Caracas this week said the formation of the Community was the most important development in Latin America and Caribbean in the past 100 years. (i.e. independence from U.S. influence and meddling).

As you know, Cuba has been out of the OAS for a half century or so, and in the past two/three years was invited back, but Cuba told the OAS to get lost.

But Cuba will be in the budding CELAC.

As Judi says, heads must be exploding at hil's State Dept.

--------------------------
President Chávez Stressed the Importance of the Meeting

For his part, President Hugo Chávez called today’s meeting historic and noted that it represents the first creation of an international regional organization “without the U.S. and without Europe.”

In his opening message to the meeting, President Chávez also referred to the importance of this effort as a means to achieve true independence and development in the region.

“Only together can we achieve development,” he emphasized. “We are playing for the future of the region, and we can’t allow anyone to derail it."

Short article, English

http://venezuela-us.org/2011/04/26/latin-american-and-caribbean-foreign-ministers-meet-in-caracas/

And a pisco sour to you :toast:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Don't think we would have known about this for a long time if you hadn't posted it.

That's got to have some people in the U.S. absolutely beside themselves with rage.

Tough!

Their countries, dammit.

Thanks for the reminder of what nearly happened in Ecuador. Horrid. Loathesome. Sure glad he had the support of the good cops, etc.

[rabs]

4. What CELAC will be

from wiki


The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is the tentative name of a regional bloc of Latin American and Caribbean nations created on February 23, 2010, at the Rio Group-Caribbean Community Unity Summit held in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico.

It consists of all sovereign countries in the Americas, except for Canada and the United States.

CELAC is an example of a decade-long push for deeper integration within The Americas.<4> CELAC is being created to deepen Latin American Integration and to reduce the once overwhelming influence of the USA on the politics and economics of Latin America, and is seen as an alternative to the Organization of American States (OAS), the regional body organized largely by Washington in 1948 as a countermeasure to potential Soviet influence in the region.

CELAC will be the successor of the Rio Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development (CALC). In July 2010 CELAC selected Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the newly elected conservative president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, as co-chairs of the forum that will draft statutes for the organization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_Latin_American_and_Caribbean_States

[Judi Lynn]

5. Highest respect and support for deepening Latin American integration.

They've come so far, they must find complete success, nothing less. It's their only chance of freedom.

Best wishes to CELAC. Full speed ahead!