Latin American / Caribbean union

[bcholmes]

The first attempt by hemispheric leaders to create a “union” or “community” of Latin American and Caribbean nations without the partici-pation of the United States or Canada is provoking reactions ranging from idealistic optimism to scoffing cynicism.

This week, leaders from 32 countries in the hemisphere met at a resort in Cancún, Mexico for a two-day summit with the goal of forming a new regional institution for Latin American and Caribbean integration, without the participation of the United States or Canada – a proposal some have referred to as a new Organization of American States (OAS). Also absent from the meeting was the new government of Honduras, which has yet to be recognized by all of Latin America following the coup last June.

“It's time to concentrate on Latin American and Caribbean unity. To translate the natural inclination of our countries into something concrete,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderón at the opening of the summit.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega also spoke in lofty and grandiloquent terms about the importance of Latin American unity.

“This will allow us to be truly free and will give us the strength to end illiteracy and poverty throughout the length and width of Latin America,” Ortega said during his intervention at the summit.

Ortega also lauded the merits of the Venezuelan-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), a leftist bloc of nations including Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Honduras recently dropped out of ALBA, and other countries in the region have declined the invitation to join. But that hasn't limited the enthusiasm of Ortega and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the two leading boosters of the socialist bloc.

“I would say that ALBA is a model that we should try to develop even more in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Ortega said this week in Cancun, apparently conflating the proposal for a greater hemispheric unity summit with the expansionist goals of ALBA.

— Nica Times

I'm sure that the Honduran coup had nothing to do with Honduras dropping out of ALBA.