Madrid/San José/Ten Latin American countries have rebelled against the so-called Tegucigalpa Declaration, signed by an organization calling itself Celac Social and sponsored by the Honduran Government of Xiomara Castro, close to the Cuban regime. The text, presented at a meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum on Thursday, the fifteenth anniversary of the attempted coup against Manuel Zelaya –Castro’s husband–, has as its first point that “socialism is the political, economic and social model to preserve the human species and the planet.”
Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Ecuador, Chile and Guatemala –these last two countries with leftist presidents– signed a statement this Friday in which they assert: “There is no segment, program or initiative called ‘Social Celac’ within the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), so no statement released under that name represents an official communication from CELAC.”
They also asked Honduras, which holds the pro tempore presidency of CELAC, to “publicly clarify that the so-called ‘Tegucigalpa Declaration’ is not a document or an official position of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.”
“The content of the so-called ‘Tegucigalpa Declaration’ was not consulted with the Member States of CELAC”
“The content of the so-called ‘Tegucigalpa Declaration’ was not consulted with the Member States of Celac, nor is it a document that should be understood as having come from Celac, nor does it represent the vision or consensus opinion of the Celac mechanism or its Member States,” the statement concludes.
The Tegucigalpa Declaration expresses its rejection of the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia this week and also its support for the Government of the President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, for its “profound program of social and political reforms to refound the Honduran State.”
The text also expresses solidarity with Palestine for the “genocide perpetrated against it by the military invasion of Israel” and describes as “unjust” the international sanctions against the governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as the “infamous economic and commercial blockade” against Cuba.
This is the second time that the same group of 10 countries has spoken out to distance themselves from publications made in the name of CELAC during the pro tempore presidency of Honduras.
The first time occurred on March 19, when they issued a statement to distance themselves from a congratulation from the president of Honduras, in her capacity as pro tempore president of CELAC, to Vladimir Putin for his electoral victory in Russia.
That day they also distanced themselves from a statement published by Castro related to the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the crisis in Haiti.
