Page 6 - MONTT LATIN AMERICAN MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 2021 (English)

Looking for a Controversial Latin American Unity
The fifth summit of the Community of American and Caribbean States, convened by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has just been held in Mexico City. The official objective was to create a commercial block, but critics point out that it was an attempt to support the regimes in Havana and Caracas. Meanwhile the popularity of the Head of State grows month by month and reaches 60 percent.
Before 17 Heads of State of the Region, in addition to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Alicia Barcena, the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, inaugurated the summit of the Community of American and Caribbean States, in the Mexican capital.
The organization was created in 2010, with the purpose of promoting the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean, in Playa del Carmen; in 2011, the second meeting of the entity was held in Caracas, where it was finally shaped. For its critics, this forum that had not
met since 2017, when a fifth summit was held in the Dominican Republic, had the explicit purpose of replacing the Organization of American States, OAS; advance in a regional integration scheme like the European Union, and give political support to the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes.
According to the Mexican Government, the main purpose was to stimulate the commercial integration of all the countries of the Region in order to build an economic community with the United States and Canada.
The intention of Lopez Obrador to replace the Organization of American States (OAS), sponsored by the United
States, an idea that he launched in a controversial speech last July, went to the background to raise a debate on how to strengthen the Latin American unity effort.
Dispute Between Participants
The presence of the Presidents of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, at times stirred the spirits of the debate table and the interventions were divided between those countries that seek that the Community of American and Caribbean States, represent Latin America and