This is the umpteenth juncture in which the regional organization demonstrates its inability to embody the urgencies and dreams of an entire continent.
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 12 April 2025 — Alliances are tested in times of crisis. The worst moments subject relations between nations to a strain that either breaks them or strengthens them. The 9th Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), held on Wednesday in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, demonstrated that Latin America still lacks the diplomatic maturity to face, as a bloc, difficult situations.
In the midst of the tariff war unleashed by Washington, the regional mechanism has opted to appeal to belligerent rhetoric rather than putting forward practical proposals.
The regional meeting, which includes 33 countries, has made clear the lack of a common strategy in the face of new economic pressures and mass deportations of migrants. None of this is surprising in a CELAC (National Commission for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women), which has been structured more around political interests and ideological affinities than as a representative body for the millions of inhabitants of this part of the world. Confronting the choice between articulating joint action to ease trade tariffs or resorting to empty pronouncements, they have chosen the latter.
Confronting the choice between articulating joint action to ease trade tariffs or resorting to empty pronouncements, they have chosen the latter.
The group signed the Tegucigalpa Declaration, adopted by 30 member states of the Community, which will be forgotten as soon as the trails of condensation of departing presidential planes dissipate in the sky. Bland, the declration emphasized its support for “democracy and the rule of law, multilateralism, and the protection and promotion of all human rights,” even though the organization’s membership includes three of the hemisphere’s largest dictatorships: Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
While Europe meets to agree on how to respond to new trade challenges, Latin American leaders have preferred to pose as intransigent and vociferous for the family photo, although many of them are already negotiating quietly and alone with the White House. The meeting in Honduras also lacked a regional plan to improve the quality of life for those young people seeking to realize their dreams on the other side of the Rio Grande, mostly due to the lack of opportunities in their countries of origin.
At times it gave the impression that each new president who spoke before the microphone wanted to demonstrate greater integrity and bellicosity towards the United States.
This has also been a meeting for catwalks and political posturing. At times, it seemed as if each new president who took the microphone wanted to demonstrate greater integrity and bellicosity toward the United States than his predecessor.
The excesses of the quarrelsome posturing led Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to denounce the arrest of immigrants on U.S. soil “without respect for due process, without proof of guilt, and under harshly repressive conditions.”
The same man who, on 11 July 2021, claimed on national television that the combat order had been given against the protesters of that day, now says he is concerned about the possible arbitrary arrests of those who had to flee the island precisely because of his repressive excesses.
Once the frowns were caught on camera, the well-worn slogans repeated, and the final declaration signed, the IX CELAC Summit concluded by missing another opportunity, the umpteenth opportunity in which the regional organization demonstrates its inability to embody the urgent needs and dreams of an entire continent.
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