Bogotá (EFE).- Foreign ministers of the community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC) called on Monday for keeping the region as “a land of peace” after holding an emergency virtual meeting to discuss the United States’ recent naval deployment in the Caribbean near Venezuela.
Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio, who hosted the meeting, said the regional body insists on “the need to maintain Latin America as a land of peace, free from any intervention and in strict adherence to United Nations declarations and to the preservation of peace and sovereignty.”
Colombia, which has held CELAC’s rotating presidency since April, convened the meeting following Washington’s decision to send warships to the southern Caribbean to curb drug trafficking.
According to Villavicencio, representatives of 23 of CELAC’s 33 member states joined the discussions.
The White House defended its operation last week, saying the deployment, which includes destroyers, a missile cruiser, and a fast-attack nuclear submarine, is part of its counter-narcotics strategy and has the backing of several Latin American governments.
Venezuela denounces “threat of invasion”
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil warned that 4,200 US troops are “trained and ready to invade” his country and demanded their immediate withdrawal, along with the eight warships Caracas claims are stationed near its shores.
“Washington has concentrated military assets near Venezuelan coasts. We are talking about eight vessels carrying, as far as we know, more than 1,200 missiles,” Gil said.
He also denounced the presence of a nuclear submarine in the Caribbean, arguing it violates not only the 2014 “zone of peace” declaration but also the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco, which bans nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Gil rejected Washington’s justification for what he called an “unprecedented and gross deployment,” dismissing as false US allegations linking President Nicolás Maduro’s government to the so-called Cartel of the Suns, a drug trafficking network the US has labeled as “terrorist.”
CELAC’s role in regional diplomacy
Founded in 2010, CELAC brings together 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean as a forum for dialogue and political coordination, excluding the US and Canada.
“Celac was born to speak with its own voice. Today, that voice must say clearly: we reject interventionist logic, we reaffirm the UN Charter, and we demand that every legitimate concern be addressed through diplomatic and multilateral channels,” Villavicencio stressed.
She underscored the bloc as a platform to “channel Latin American and Caribbean solutions to regional challenges.”
For Villavicencio, defending the region’s “peace zone” does not mean ignoring internal differences or the threat posed by transnational organized crime.
Instead, she argued, “it means tackling it with institutions, judicial and police cooperation, and mutual trust, not with military threats that inevitably generate negative consequences for human security, trade, tourism and the economies of all our countries.” EFE
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