Venezuela and Chile will head a new regional bloc that will include all countries in the Americas except Canada and the United States to be inaugurated in July 2011, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said.<\/p>\n
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC, its Spanish-language acronym), will have among its goals tightening trade and institutional cooperation in the region, in step with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s so-called “Plan Caracas.”<\/p>\n
Twenty foreign ministers from the 32 CELAC members met Saturday in Caracas and agreed tasking Venezuela and Chile with drafting the new bloc’s statutes and co-chairing the group and hosting its summits in 2011 and 2012, the ministry said on its website.<\/p>\n
CELAC’s creation was agreed to in February at the Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Unity in Mexico.<\/p>\n
Besides setting up CELAC, Saturday’s meeting also discussed Plan Caracas, which Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said aimed at “consolidating (regional) integration” to eliminate poverty and boost technological cooperation.<\/p>\n
Plan Caracas also calls for “building a just, multilateral trade system… increasing cooperation among regional organizations” such as trade bloc Mercosur, political bloc Unasur and Petrocaribe, he added.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministers also agreed to holding their next meeting September 6 again in Caracas, to prepare for CELAC’s first summit of heads of state and government in July next year.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 ANP\/AFP<\/p>\n