After the regressive cycle in which the right-wing governments represented by Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Mauricio Macri in Argentina and the civil-military coup in Bolivia came to power, Latin America is breathing new airs of hope, strengthened by the return to the Brazilian presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the government of Gustavo Petro in Colombia.
The climate is also particularly conducive to strengthening Celac itself, a forum that was deliberately weakened in previous years and yet is of crucial importance for the development and integration of Latin America.
It should not be ignored, however, that the meeting is taking place in a context in which the continental right wing is carrying out a brutal offensive against the established governments.
After losing control of the Executive Power in their respective countries, the displaced political-economic oligarchies in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Mexico, among others, have launched judicial, legislative and media campaigns, not only aimed at hindering the implementation of social policies, democratizing measures and sovereigntist positions, but also at displacing progressive governments and parties from power.
Moreover, such campaigns are carried out under the sign of an undeniable international coordination, particularly with the European right and ultra-right, but also with the racist and sovereigntist sectors of the United States, which have Donald Trump as their main exponent and spokesman. In this context, it is worrying that the threats coming from the reactionary circles of the host country have managed to dissuade the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, from attending the summit.
To the threats of aggression against the Venezuelan president, cynically celebrated by former Argentine President Macri, was added the request of the right-wing Republican Proposal to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to detain Maduro upon his arrival at the Buenos Aires airport of Ezeiza, in what constitutes a coup provocation, an open attempt at destabilization and a call for foreign intervention in Argentina.
In the face of this reactionary belligerence, the main tasks of the leaders and representatives gathered in Buenos Aires consist mainly in reactivating regional cooperation, organizations and integration processes, so that the subcontinent may have instruments to counteract the perverse influence of the Organization of American States -an entity that is clearly irreformable-, as well as to advance in the creation of consensuses to reactivate national economies after the devastating effects of the covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, in addition to confronting right-wingers who are increasingly close to fascism.
