Our region is and ought to be a zone of peace
A historic CELAC Summit is recalled and invoked
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the proclamation by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC for its initials in Spanish) that the region is and ought to be a zone of peace, the Latin American Parliament has issued a declaration reaffirming its commitment to the concept of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace. The Declaration reiterated relevant essential principles of the Parliament, including: Latin American integration; non-interventionism; the right of peoples to self-determination, that is, their right to freely decide on their political, economic, and social system; the condemnation of the threat or use of force against the political independence and territorial integrity of states; the peaceful and just solution of international disputes; and friendship and cooperation among states.
CELAC was established in 2011, the culmination of the process of Latin American and Caribbean regional integration, which was initiated in 2004 with the formation of ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our America). CELAC united all thirty-three governments in the region, as an alternative to the U.S. imperialist project of an integration of the Americas under U.S. direction. The founding principles of CELAC are anti-imperialist: respect for the sovereignty of nations, non-intervention in the affairs of states, and mutually beneficial trade among nations.
In addition to declaring the region to be a zone of peace, the Second Summit of CELAC in 2014, held in Havana, declared against a U.S.-directed integration and called for a regional integration based in solidarity and cooperation, seeking sustainable and productive development. It reaffirmed the right of nations to control their natural resources, and it declared that foreign investment should promote the development of the region and should not violate the sovereignty of the nations of the region.
In my commentary of January 24, 2023, I discuss CELAC as an organization of resistance to U.S. imperialism and the Organization of American States, which was designed by the United States as an institutional mechanism for enlisting the systematic participation of Latin American governments in the domination exercised over them by the United States. And I interpreted CELAC and Latin American and Caribbean unity and integration as a continuation and renewal of the Third World project that was born in Bandung in 1955.
The Sevent Summit of CELAC was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 24, 2023. Its Declaration of Buenos Aires reaffirmed the founding principles of CELAC, and it broke new ground with its declaration of the need for the economic models of the countries of the region to prioritize the productive development of their economies with social inclusion. It also formulated articles with respect to international migration.
The anti-imperialist struggle is not a straight line, as is indicated by the recent taking of power through the electoral process of a government in Argentina that is attempting to adopt extreme neoliberal measures of privatization and reduction of the state. Nonetheless, anti-imperialism is an unfolding worldwide process, showing the march of humanity toward the fulfillment of its destiny.
The Latin American Parliament was established in 1964, and it has twenty-three member parliaments. Each member parliament sends twelve plenipotentiaries, which are obligated to represent the views of their parent parliament.
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