Mexican President launches new regional bloc similar to the European Union

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 18 (Reuters) – The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to form a bloc similar to the European Union, the Mexican president proposed at a regional summit on Saturday, in a bid to wrest the diplomatic influence at the Washington-based Organization of the United States. States.

Summit host President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told nearly 20 presidents and prime ministers attending the meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) at the opening ceremony of the rally that the bloc could better boost the region’s economies.

“In these times, CELAC can become the main instrument to consolidate relations between our Latin American and Caribbean nations,” he said at the opening ceremony, praising the European Union as an ideal to be continued.

The leaders met at the invitation of the leftist president of Mexico with the stated aim of weakening the Washington-based Organization of American States, the long-standing regional body that excludes Cuba.

In his address, Bolivian President Luis Arce called for a global agreement to reduce the debt of poor countries while Cuban Miguel Diaz-Canel called for an end to the US trade embargo against the communist island.

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez helped found CELAC in 2011.

Reporting by David Alire Garcia and Noe Torres; Editing by Andrea Ricci

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