US not invited as Hugo Chávez launches Latin group

 

A Venezuelan presidential guard stands outside the Teresa Carreno Theater before the Celac summit. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters

Heads of state from across Latin America and the Caribbean flew in to Caracas on Friday for the inaugural meeting of a group designed to counter US influence and improve regional ties.

But the US and Canada, have been sidelined from what the host, Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez, has called "the most important political event in our America in 100 years or more".

Chávez, who is gearing up for presidential elections next year, has grand designs for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or Celac.

Among the leaders for the two-day, 33-nation event are Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff, the Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner, Cuba's Raúl Castro, Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos and Mexico's Felipe Calderón.

"It's great to be here in the land of Bolívar," Paraguay's president Fernando Lugo told television, in reference to Simón Bolívar, the South American liberator. "Bolivar's dream is becoming concrete little by little," he added after being greeted off his plane by a military band.

Jamaica's recently elected prime minister, Andrew Holness, said English-speaking countries in the Caribbean needed closer integration with South America. "Jamaica's future lies as much in the south as it does in the north," he said.

Venezuela's state-controlled television station, VTV, dedicated rolling coverage to the summit, with advertisements exalting the "transcendent" and "historic" event.

"Today the many paths of our America converge in a common space," one commercial enthused.

In Brazil the event received less attention. The foreign pages of O Globo, one of the largest newspapers, focused not on that day's meeting between Chávez and Rousseff but on Hillary Clinton's talks with pro-Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the crisis in Syria.

Analysts said the summit represented a further sign of dwindling US influence in the region.

Pamela Starr, a professor of public diplomacy from the University of Southern California, said it reflected a long-standing Latin America desire to develop an association of nations including Cuba but without the US.

"It is only in recent years, with persistent economic crisis in the north coupled with robust economic growth in most of Latin America, that the region has developed the confidence to go it alone," she said.

But Starr, questioned Venezuela's ability to command significant regional leadership through Celac. "Venezuela is a marginal player at best, even … playing host to this summit," she said, adding that with presidential elections due next year the event could help boost support for Chávez at home.

"Hugo Chávez is once again in a position to score important propaganda points at home and in the region."

Question marks also remain over what powers Celac will hold. "Chávez is using the summit as a desperate effort to reignite his regional leadership which he knows has waned," said Maria Teresa Romero, professor of international relations at Venezuela's Central University. "He is using this event to make Venezuelans and other nations believe that his leadership is still alive."

Romero said there was a "growing sense of disenchantment" with Chávez across the region. "He still has followers, especially in the Alba [Bolivarian Alternative bloc] and other left-leaning groups throughout Latin America, but the great majority of groups, and NGOs and governments have shied away," she added.

On Thursday, Chávez predicted the new group would eventually eclipse the Washington-based Organisation of American States, or OAS, which he described as "a toothless, old body."

"Celac is born with a new spirit," he said. "It is a platform for people's economic, political and social development."