RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s government has announced its withdrawal from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). According to Brasília, the regional alliance is no longer capable of acting appropriately in the context of a regional crisis.
President Jair Bolsonaro also made this statement since, in the words of his Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, there is a “communist haze” within the CELAC which is seeking to “strangle” Brazil.
Brazil had already suspended its cooperation last year over differences with Bolivia under President Evo Morales, whose government held the CELAC Chairmanship at the time. Bolsonaro’s government had also suspended its membership during the current Mexican presidency.
This year, Mexico took over the rotating CELAC chairmanship and urged Brazil to reconsider its position. However, the Brazilian government declined the invitation to attend the summit and told the Mexican government that it would not be taking part in events relating to the takeover of the CELAC Chairmanship nor would it endorse any documents, work plans or proposals for action prepared at ministerial level by the CELAC.
According to the newspaper O Globo, Bolsonaro is bothered by the attendance of Cuba and particularly by the presence of members of the Venezuelan government at this meeting. Brazil is one of the almost 60 countries which recognize the self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela, and consequently only his envoys to multinational organizations.
CELAC, founded in February 2010, is one of the most important forums for political cooperation in Latin America. So far, all American countries except the USA and Canada have been represented in the association.
One of the founding fathers was then Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, one of the main political rivals of the current head of state, Jair Bolsonaro.
The Brazilian political scientist Bruno Lima Rocha sees Brazil’s decision as a “50 steps back” reversal for Latin American integration, particularly in terms of international politics, the economy, and technological and scientific development. “This is an anti-Latin American, anti-popular attitude that ignores Brazil’s role as a regional leader nation,” he said.
This is not the first time that Bolsonaro’s government has decided to leave regional organizations. Last year, Brazil made its exit from UNASUR. The reason given was that it was the creation of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to help the regional left-wing come to power.
UNASUR was initiated in 2008 as a progressive integration project by other political leaders such as Lula, Néstor Kirchner, Rafael Correa, and Evo Morales, alongside Chávez.
By leaving UNASUR, Bolsonaro followed the lead of the governments of Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru, who had left the association pointing to its “ongoing crisis”. Some of these countries then founded the conservative “Forum for the Progress of South America” (PROSUR).