2008–2010: Brazil and Mexico initiatives The immediate predecessor of the CELAC is the
Rio Group. Formed in 1986, it gathered 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries around summits to cooperate regional policy issue independently of the
United States. On 16–17 December 2008, the
I Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development (CALC) took place in Costa do Sauipe,
Bahia,
Brazil. It was organized at the initiative of the
Lula administration with the goal of building cooperation mechanism with greater autonomy from the United States and Canada. Most heads of state from Latin America and the Caribbean states attended, with the exception of
President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe and
President of Peru Alan García. The summit finished with the signing of the Bahia Declaration, a common agenda establishing the following priorities: cooperation between mechanism of regional and subregional integration, the
2008 financial crisis, energy, infrastructures, social development and eradication of hunger and poverty,
food security,
sustainable development,
natural disasters,
human rights promotion,
migration,
South–South cooperation and Latin America and Caribbean projection. In 2008, the
Calderón administration of
Mexico proposed the creation of the Latin American and the Caribbean Union (Spanish:
Unión Latinoamericana y del Caribe, ULC). The proposal was formalized on 27 March 2009 at
Rio Group meeting. At the initiative of Mexico, the XXI Rio Summit and the II CALC summit were held together on 22–23 February 2010 in
Playa del Carmen,
Mexico. The joint summit was named the
Latin American and Caribbean Unity Summit and the 33 attending states decided to create the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which would be formally established in 2011.
Hugo Chávez,
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and
Rafael Correa were among the other prominent leaders who praised the creation of CELAC. In July 2010, CELAC selected
President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez and
President of Chile Sebastián Piñera, as co-chairs of the forum to draft statutes for the organization. The announcement prompted debate and discussion across Latin America and the Caribbean about whether it was more beneficial to have close ties with the U.S. and Canada or to work independently. An editorial in Brazil's
Estadão newspaper said, "CELAC reflects the disorientation of the region's governments in relation to its problematic environment and its lack of foreign policy direction, locked as it is into the illusion that snubbing the United States will do for Latin American integration what 200 years of history failed to do." It primarily focused on the global economic crisis and its effects on the region. Several leaders, including presidents
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,
Dilma Rousseff and
Juan Manuel Santos, encouraged an increase in regional trade, economic development, and further economic cooperation among members in order to defend their growing economies. Chávez, and other leaders such as
Rafael Correa and
Daniel Ortega, expressed hope that the bloc would work to further
Latin American integration, end U.S. hegemony and consolidate control over regional affairs. Amongst the key issues on the agenda were the creation of a "new financial architecture," sanction for maintaining the legal status of
coca in Bolivia and the rejection of the
Cuban embargo by the U.S. United States President Barack Obama's senior adviser on Latin America, Daniel Restrepo, informed reporters from Miami that the U.S. government would "watch and see what direction CELAC takes". Brazil decided to suspend its participation in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in January 2020 under the administration of
Jair Bolsonaro. Following the
2022 Brazilian general election, newly elected president
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signalled his intention to rejoin the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and effectively did so in the first days of his administration. In June 2023, CELAC recognized the Latin American and Caribbean character of the island of
Puerto Rico and “calls on the UN General Assembly to examine the question of Puerto Rico in its entirety and in all its aspects, and rule on this matter as soon as possible”. ==Organization==