Honduras Cancels Anti-Trump Latin America Meeting Due to Infighting

Far-left President of Honduras Xiomara Castro canceled a meeting scheduled for Thursday of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to discuss President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal migrants in the United States, citing a “lack of consensus” among member states.

Castro announced the cancellation of the CELAC encounter in a two-page statement issued late on Tuesday in which the Honduran government claimed that it was “systematically opposed” by unnamed CELAC member states who have “privileged other principles and interests different from those of the unity of the Latin American and Caribbean region as a Community.”

Castro did not publicly disclose further specifics on the “lack of consensus” and abstained from directly mentioning any of the member states that allegedly “systematically opposed” Honduras.

CELAC is a 33-country regional bloc founded in Caracas in 2011 under the auspices of Venezuela’s late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez, who heavily promoted CELAC as a U.S.-free regional bloc.

President Castro, who presently occupies CELAC’s rotating chairmanship, called an emergency meeting this week to discuss the Trump administration’s deportations of illegal migrants and the “unity” of Latin American and Caribbean nations. The now-canceled meeting was slated to take place on Thursday morning in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

Far-left president of Colombia Gustavo Petro, who is slated to succeed Castro as the next rotating head of CELAC “in the coming weeks,” had confirmed his attendance to the meeting — called by the Honduran government on Sunday right as Petro caused an hours-long diplomatic crisis with the United States after he abruptly refused to accept a U.S. deportation flight.

Similarly, radical leftist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose government recently complained to the United States about the “degrading treatment” of deportees, was reportedly slated to participate via videoconference.

The Honduran government’s statement begins by informing that, on Sunday, Petro had requested Castro to use her position as pro-tempore head of CELAC to call for the meeting to address President Trump’s migrant policies.

“A few hours later on Sunday, the Government of Colombia announced the diplomatic crisis between the Republic of Colombia and the United States of America, as a consequence of the U.S. administration’s migratory presidential actions and Colombia’s refusal to accept them,” the statement read. “Within hours after the exchange of public messages between the two governments, it was announced that the impasse had been overcome.”

The statement reiterated that CELAC only adopts decisions “by consensus” and that, as such, Honduras, in its exercise of the bloc’s pro-tempore presidency, encouraged the “fulfillment of common objectives to achieve regional integration and unity, including cooperation among Member Countries vis-à-vis other countries, blocs of countries or international actors.”

The Honduran government continued by asserting that it has promoted debate within CELAC on “highly sensitive” issues and stressed that migrants and their rights, “both in transit to the receiving country and within the laws of the United States,” are a common “concern that must be addressed objectively and responsibly.”

“However, in the exercise of the Pro Tempore Presidency, Honduras regrets that in the case of Haiti and in this humanitarian crisis of migrants, we are once again systematically opposed by Member Countries that have privileged other principles and interests different from those of the unity of the Latin American and Caribbean region as a Community,” the statement read.

The Honduran government concluded by reiterating that it will continue to seek consensus, convene and present initiatives to provide answers to the “historical problems” suffered by the region.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.