Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez being greeted by Mexican protocol upon her arrival to the CELAC Summit. Photo courtesy of Twitter / @SRE_mx.
At the end of the afternoon of this Friday, September 17, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry reported that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Foreign Affairs Minister Félix Plasencia arrived in Mexico to represent Venezuela at the 6th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin Americans and Caribbean States (CELAC).
This is the first meeting of this nature in five years, and CELAC plans to address the strengthening of the organization’s role in the region, seen as the natural replacement for the disgraced Organization of American States (OAS).
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#EnFotos Arriba la Vicepresidenta Ejecutiva @delcyrodriguezv junto al Canciller @PlasenciaFelix a la Ciudad de México para participar en la VI Cumbre de Jefes y Jefas de Estado y de Gobierno de la #Celac 🇻🇪🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/XEr8aIAkAu
— Cancillería Venezuela 🇻🇪 (@CancilleriaVE) September 17, 2021
After being received by Manuel Bartlett on behalf of the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, Vice President Rodríguez estimated that this new meeting of sister countries promises to provide an opportunity to strengthen ties and consolidate Latin American and Caribbean integration, breaking with the hegemony that empires aspire to impose on the region. “The path is unity,” said Rodríguez. “There is no other option. The countries at the hegemonic centers want us divided because Latin America and the Caribbean united would be an unstoppable world power.”
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In July, at a preparatory meeting for the summit of heads of state held this Saturday, September 18, the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who holds the pro tempore presidency of CELAC, had spoken out in favor of the replacement of the OAS system “by a truly autonomous body—not a lackey of anyone, but a mediator, at the request and acceptance of the parties in conflict.”
📸Arriba a nuestro país la vicepresidenta ejecutiva de 🇻🇪, @delcyrodriguezv, quien participará en la VI Cumbre de Jefas y Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno de la @PPT_CELAC.
Es recibida por el director general de la @CFEmx, @ManuelBartlett.
¡Bienvenida a 🇲🇽! pic.twitter.com/OtIICZaVxP
— Relaciones Exteriores (@SRE_mx) September 17, 2021
“Let’s say goodbye to impositions, interference, sanctions, exclusions, and blockades. Let us apply the principles of non-intervention, self-determination of the peoples and peaceful solution of problems,” said López Obrador in the same speech, which coincided with the 238th anniversary of the birth of the South American independence hero Simón Bolívar.
Among other issues, the dignitaries will also discuss the blockade of Cuba, the situation of the Malvinas Islands, and the status of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous languages in the region.
Featured image: Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez greeted by Mexican protocol upon her arrival at the CELAC Summit. Photo: Twitter/@SRE_mx.
(La IguanaTV) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
