Brazil returns to Celac

The brand new government of the leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced this Thursday the return of Brazil to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), from which the country withdrew three years ago by order of the then far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

The government communicated to the member countries of the international organization, “through the appropriate diplomatic channels, the reincorporation of Brazil, fully and immediately, to all instances of the mechanism, both those of a political nature and those of a technical nature,” it indicated. the ministry of External relationships it’s a statement.

The Latin American giant suspended its participation in Celac in January 2020 because, according to the administration of Bolsonaro, a harsh critic of the left, the organization “gave prominence to non-democratic regimes such as those of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua.”

The bloc, which brings together 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, without the United States or Canada, was created in 2010, in the golden years of the Latin American left and with Lula as promoter, with the aim of promoting dialogue in the region.

By the time Bolsonaro pushed Brazil aside, the organization was practically paralyzed by the arrival of conservative governments in the countries that make it up.

Now, the region is experiencing a new wave of leftist presidents in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile or Colombia.

“The return of Brazil to the Latin American community of States is an essential step for the recomposition of our diplomatic patrimony and for the full reintegration of the country into the international community,” the note added.

Lula, who took office for his third term on January 1, after having governed between 2002 and 2010, has shown signs of wanting to break Brazil’s international isolation during the four years of his predecessor.

In his inauguration speech in Congress, he announced a new role for Brazil in the world by resuming “South American integration” and the reconstruction of the “high and active dialogue with the United States, the European Community and China.”

The 77-year-old leftist president will participate in the Celac summit, to be held on January 24 in Buenos Aires, to which US President Joe Biden is also invited.

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