In 1983 Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela created a forum to mediate armed conflicts in Central America. At the time, the need for them to create forums for direct dialogue became clear., without the intermediation of other countries, if they really wanted to overcome the conflicts. It became known as the Contadora Group. (name of the island of Panama on which the meeting took place).
In 1985 Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay joined the group and, created the Permanent Mechanism for Political Consultation and Conciliation in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as the Rio Group. The Rio Group is not an international organization per se, insofar as it does not have a secretariat responsible for implementing and monitoring the proposals. However, it is an important space for diplomatic consultation, especially in times of crisis.
In 2010, during the Latin American and Caribbean Unity Summit, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States was created (CELAC). It is a regional bloc composed of 33 countries in the region and which has a direct relationship with previous efforts, that is, is another important space for diplomatic consultation (and politics) without interference from other countries.
In addition to technical topics (as education, energy, infrastructure and transport), It is an important space for addressing political issues, both regionally and globally. Statements have already been issued on global issues such as nuclear disarmament and climate change and regional issues such as the issue of the Falkland Islands or the trade blockade of Cuba.
In addition to being a privileged space for building agendas based on the interests of the region,, CELAC also maintains constant dialogue with other blocs and international representations. What can be seen is that there has been an evolution over these decades in dialogue forums between countries in the region, both in terms of number of participating countries, the breadth of the agendas forwarded.
In January 2020 Brazil suspended its participation in CELAC. In note, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that “it does not consider the conditions for Celac to operate in the current context of regional crisis to be present”. Informally, the government's discomfort was related to the participation of Cuba and Venezuela in the group.
Given Brazil's relevance to the region, his removal from this group weakens his role as builder and shaper of the region's international agendas. At the same time that CELAC loses, Brazil also loses, only even more. If Brazil really wants to assert itself as a regional leader, it needs to understand that (1) government ideologies should not be the main requirement for selecting those we want to interact with internationally and (2) Brazilian power is not enough to affirm the country as a regional power without using appropriate forums to forward collaboration projects.
Just to give you an example of how important this is, Is it possible to get the schedule of intra-State payments. Some currencies are normally used to mediate international commercial transactions (generally the dollar and the euro). This way of transacting leads to dependence on the conditions that mark these currencies, which ends up affecting the commercial capacity itself. In Mercosur, for example, a mechanism was developed for international payments between the bloc's countries to be made with local currencies. The same could be done in a broader scope, involving other countries in South America and the Caribbean. For this, CELAC must, or any other organization of the same kind, be empowered.
Like this, more than ideological positions, we need real positions that help Brazil develop a more significant role in building the regional agenda.
