Honduras assures that there is a will to provide Celac with “more institutional capacities”

The chancellor of HondurasEduardo Enrique Reina, assured this Friday that the objective is for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) have “more institutional capacities” and create “a kind of technical secretariat.”

“The desire of most of the member countries is to turn Celac into an increasingly active community and provide it with more institutional capacities so that it can be more present,” said the chancellor at the final press conference of the VIII Celac summit in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Reina, whose country assumed the ‘pro tempore’ presidency of the regional mechanism today, explained that Celac has reached “a state of maturity so important that we must strengthen that institutional capacity and act beyond the declarations that have been adopted over time.”

In the final declaration of the summit, there is a call to strengthen and improve the role of Celac as a mechanism for political integration in the region.

The Foreign Minister of Honduras explained that he will subscribe “a support agreement” with the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (Sela) and with the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI).

“We will announce this as part of our presidency and this is as a support to create a mechanism of a kind of technical secretariat that follows up on all the commitments that have been reached at the Celac summits,” he pointed.

One of the biggest defenders of this initiative is the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who at the last Celac summit in Buenos Aires ratified his proposal to form a “powerful” General Secretariat of the regional mechanism that “articulate all initiatives” of the member countries.

Reina indicated that the final declaration of the summit, whose final text has not yet been released, addresses “several important topics”, among them institutions from Celac.

Other points of the declaration deal with economic stability, food security, social cohesion, territorial integrity, sustainable development goals, health, education, science, technology and innovation, energy transition and space cooperation.

Also included are issues such as climate change and disaster mitigation, global peace and security, Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples, gender equality and the problem of transnational organized crime.

In addition to the final declaration, the members of Celac adopted eight special positions, including one against the US embargo on Cuba and another in support of the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

They also addressed ocean conservation, migration, comprehensive disaster risk management in Latin America and the Caribbean, the regularization of democracy against hate speech, and the case of the Malvinas Islands.

There was also a statement on the conflict in the Gaza Strip and, specifically, condemnation of Israel’s actions, but this was only signed by 24 of the 33 members of Celac.