Honduran President Xiomara Castro addressing the head of states and government participating at the 9th CELAC Summit held in Tegucigalpa, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. Photo: CELAC.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—In the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, the Ninth CELAC Summit has begun under the leadership of Honduran President Xiomara Castro. During the summit, participants address key regional issues, including global challenges such as migration and the tariff war initiated by US President Donald Trump, which has put global economies at risk of recession.
All participants at the summit this Wednesday, April 9, expressed their eagerness to participate in the CELAC-China Summit scheduled for next May. There was also an open disagreement between the Argentinian and Paraguayan delegations on the signing of the summit’s final declaration.
Among the heads of state and government participating in the summit are Cuban President Miguel DĂaz-Canel, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Uruguayan President YamandĂş Orsi, Bolivian President Luis Arce, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, alongside other regional leaders, bringing the total to 12 heads of state and government. Participants arrived at the Juan Manuel Gálvez Hall of the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH) to begin discussions at the historic event.
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)—a bloc comprising 33 countries and 600 million inhabitants—is seen as an alternative to the Organization of American States (OAS). It includes all OAS member states except the US and Canadian empires, as well as Cuba. Founded on December 3, 2011, in Caracas, Venezuela, with the signing of the Declaration of Caracas, CELAC aims to deepen Latin American integration and reduce external hegemony in regional politics and economics.
In her opening speech, the Honduran president and CELAC pro tempore leader, Xiomara Castro, highlighted the bloc’s operational achievements and called for reinventing regional integration beyond neoliberal frameworks amid a shifting world order.
During her remarks, Castro emphasized that CELAC remains active beyond symbolic gestures, citing concrete achievements under Honduras’ presidency: 16 national coordinator meetings, 12 well-attended ministerial meetings, and an emergency virtual summit following the Mexican embassy incident in Ecuador. “This is not a ceremonial act, but a political one,” she emphasized, acknowledging the difficulty of sustaining unity “amid fragmentation and siege” while underscoring its necessity.
Castro traced CELAC’s origins to “a dream, an ideal, a utopia embraced by our heroes as a historical, sovereign, and supportive entity.” She sharply criticized the neoliberal order imposed on sovereign nations, citing the US empire under Donald Trump, which “adopted measures to redraw the economic map of nations without dialogue.”
She proposed a renewed vision for CELAC: “It must be a tool for emancipation, sovereign cooperation, environmental justice, democratic socialism, and self-determination.” Noting the upcoming transfer of the pro tempore presidency to Colombia, she expressed confidence in President Gustavo Petro’s leadership to uphold “the dreams of BolĂvar, MartĂ, Fidel, Allende, Chávez, and Sandino.”
Castro also condemned the US colonial blockade against Cuba, countering US imperial accusations by highlighting Cuba’s global contributions of teachers, scientists, and doctors. She voiced support for Venezuela, Nicaragua, Argentina’s former President Cristina Fernández, and Argentina’s claim to the Malvinas Islands, while extending solidarity to Palestinians suffering under the Israeli entity’s ongoing genocide and urging collective action to “stop the war of aggression.”
Cuba’s President Miguel DĂaz-Canel Arrives in Honduras to Participate in 9th CELAC Summit
Addressing global capital’s pressures, she urged the region to reject being a “sacrificial zone” and instead embrace its identity as a “continent of hope, cultural diversity, and political plurality.” Emphasizing the need and importance of unity, she warned, “We cannot walk separately as the world reorganizes without us, nor unite by repeating failed neoliberal recipes,” a direct critique of the Washington Consensus.
In a complex geopolitical landscape, Castro demanded that “CELAC must be respected as a zone of peace,” reinforcing its role as a vital mechanism for defending collective sovereignty. Her closing message undrrlined Latin America and the Caribbean’s imperative to shape their own destiny in a rapidly changing world.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/AU
