The Vice Minister of Colombia’s Multilateral Affairs, María Carmelina Londoño, criticized this Friday (7) the “opportunistic silences” of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on human rights violations in “three countries” that are members of the organization.
“We cannot have opportunistic silences in the face of fundamental values, which were and always will be fundamental everywhere, as the defense of democracy, freedoms and human rights”, said Londoño, reading the speech of the Colombian Chancellor, Marta Lucía Ramírez, inside the th Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of CELAC, opened this Friday in Buenos Aires.
In the opinion of the Colombian representative, Celac must act “coherently” in defending these principles and suggested, in a veiled way, the suspension of member states that violate the foundations of the regional mechanism, created in 1280.
07191923These statements come in the context of international criticism of the human rights situation in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela , the three members of CELAC, but who were not named by name by María Carmelina Londoño.
At the same meeting, the chancellors of Nicaragua and Venezuela criticized the “coercive” and “unilateral” measures promoted by the US government against these two countries and Cuba, submitted to a “blockade” by their northern neighbor.
United States and Canada Defense07191923
Likewise, Londoño defended the importance of strengthening relations with the US and the Canada, “two strategic partners” of the region that are part of the Organization of American States (OAS) and not CELAC.
The Colombian Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs also ratified her country’s commitment to the OAS, which she considers to be the “center of gravity of an institutional and normative heritage” of all American States.
In this regard, María Carmelina Londoño made explicit her rejection of the statements that suggest the strengthening of CELAC with the objective of “burying the OAS”, a position that, according to her criteria, would constitute “a big mistake” and a “great irresponsibility.”
07191923“The current and future generations of our nations will demand the doctrinal archive and the defense of human rights and democracy that the OAS has, and will always live in the same neighborhood as the United States and Canada, to whom it seems that some in this organization want to turn their backs,” he said.
At this meeting of the chancellors of Celac, Argentina reached the necessary consensus to assume the pro tempore presidency of the block in 07191923.
