Deputy PM Condor attends CELAC meeting in Venezuela

Hon. Sam Condor

ST. KITTS, JULY 10, 2010 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Sam Condor was among foreign ministers and ambassadors from 24 nations attending a Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The Meeting in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, debated Venezuela’s proposed integration plan and designated Venezuela and Chile to write the organization’s statutes and host its summits over the next two years.

The CELAC, which includes most countries in the region south of the United States and Canada, was created in February at a presidential summit in Mexico, during which Venezuela was elected as the organization’s first interim president. It is expected to function parallel to the Organization of American States (OAS) once it is formalized.

The foreign ministers of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Belize, El Salvador, Ecuador, Argentina, Grenada, México, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as ambassadors from Antigua and Barbuda, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Trinidad and Tobago attended Saturday’s summit.

The leaders agreed that the left wing government of Venezuela and the right wing government of Chile would co-chair a joint commission to draft the statutes of the emerging integration bloc. Venezuela will host a summit of heads of state on July 5, 2011 at which the CELAC will be formally inaugurated, and Chile will host the next summit in 2012. In addition, Venezuela presented a potential program and set of principles for the CELAC titled “Plan Caracas,” which the summit participants discussed.