Political India: Engaging America

The United States was handed a healthy helping of hemispherical humility last week when, along with Canada, it was excluded from a new organisation representing Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC.

Predictably CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, has been strongly supported by Latin American political heavyweights who have fallen foul of the U.S. State Department, and at the top of that list is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

On Friday Mr. Chavez, who appeared to have recovered from recent treatment for cancer, welcomed delegates, including Heads of State, from over 33 member-nations of the CELAC group.

He set the tone for the CELAC meetings when he said, “The Monroe Doctrine was imposed here: America for Americans, the Yankees,” adding, “They imposed their will during 200 years, but that's enough.”

Earlier the U.S. State Department issued a muted but critical response to questions about the implications of CELAC for the Organisation of American States, a major hemispherical body of which the U.S. is also a member.

Department Spokesman Mark Toner said at a briefing, “There [are] many sub-regional organisations in the hemisphere, some of which we belong to. Others, such as this, we don’t. We continue, obviously, to work through the OAS as the preeminent multilateral organization speaking for the hemisphere.”

The U.S. response notwithstanding, observers noted that the attendance of some of the major nations in Latin America might imply that the U.S. grip on the region’s politics was weakening. Among the attendees were Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Cuban President Raúl Castro, Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner, and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

In particular the inclusion of Cuba in CELAC reflects some Latin American nations’ desire to rebalance the structure and power of regional organisations, as Cuba has long been blacklisted by the U.S. and its membership of the U.S.-dominated OAS was suspended between 1962 and 2009.