"The future of SELA is at stake", warns SELA Secretary at
inauguration
of the XXX Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council
Caracas, 22 Nov. 2004. "This meeting is vital, and although I am not given
to using superlatives, I am sure that the future of SELA is at stake at this meeting of
the Latin American Council", the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Roberto
Guarnieri, said on Monday at the inauguration of the XXX Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council of SELA, the highest
political decision-making body of the organisation.
"Today marks the opening of a Latin American Council that will have far-reaching
consequences for SELA, as the course of this organisation will be contingent upon the
decisions adopted at this meeting. Continuing like this, as we have been doing to date, is
to consign SELA to oblivion, to ensure that it definitely removed from the scene",
the Venezuelan diplomat said at the inauguration of the technical phase of the meeting,
which is being attended by representatives of the 27 Latin American and Caribbean
countries that make up the Latin American Economic System (SELA).
In another meeting held prior to the inauguration of the council meeting, Costa Rica was
elected as to chair the XXX Latin American Council, a position that will be filled by
Walter Hernández, the Costa Rican Ambassador to Venezuela.
Almost 30 years after it was founded - by means of the Panama Convention establishing the
Latin American Economic System (SELA), which was adopted on 17 October 1975 - the
organisation has been bedevilled by a severe institutional and financial crisis, while the
environment in which the organisation must function has been characterised by the
development of a series of dynamic transformations fuelled by agreements, associations,
treaties, strategic and political agreements, as well as other forms of relationships that
are being forged between countries and regions, Guarnieri stated.
"These transformations are taking shape within the context of an expansive process at
the national, regional and global levels, but not at SELA, which has succumbed to inertia.
SELA, its Permanent Secretariat, has strayed and is thus being inevitably excluded from
this budding scheme of institutional and decision-making bodies and systems that are
appearing throughout Latin American, the Caribbean and the world at large. It is only a
matter of time, and probably much less time than many of us would imagine, before SELA may
definitely disappear from the scene unless it radically changes its current course",
Guarnieri added.
Permanent Secretary Guarnieri, who has been at the helm of the organisation for only one
year, is submitting a draft proposal for the restructuring of the Permanent Secretariat to
the XXX Latin American Council for its consideration. This draft addresses the financial
recovery of SELA, but also - and most particularly - the institutional transformation of
the organization, with a view "to converting it into a organization for reference
within and outside the region; to raising its stature within the overall institutional
architecture of Latin American, Caribbean and global integration and cooperation with the
purpose of buttressing its leverage in key decision-making processes; and to strengthening
it as an institution known for its prestige, its analytical capacity, its insightfulness
and its actual usefulness to all member countries", he said.
"However, to set this process in motion", Guarnieri added, "SELA needs the
political backing of its Member States. The support of these countries can no longer be
questioned. Any gap whatsoever in the level of political support of a single country,
however small - although size, too, will undoubtedly have its own consequences - imperils
the integrity of this institution".
"In synthesis, this is the plan that I am proposing to this Latin American Council:
Financially balance SELA and restructure it to enable it to excel. The future of SELA is
what is at stake. This is a shared responsibility of the Latin American Council and of the
Permanent Secretariat. Now, it's up to you, the Members", Guarnieri concluded.
For his part, the chairman of the XXX Latin American Council of SELA, Ambassador Walter
Hernández, of Costa Rica, pointed out that this meeting "may determine the end or
survival of SELA as a mechanism of Latin American and Caribbean integration".
"I therefore wish to highlight the importance of strengthening the Latin American
Economic System. SELA functions on the basis of the commitment and political and economic
will of its member countries; hence the importance of resolving the current financial
crisis being faced. This effort requires joint decision-making and consensus that will
enable SELA to accomplish its objectives. Indeed, the restructuring of the Permanent
Secretariat will provide us with a SELA that is better equipped to respond to the various
needs and demands of its member countries", Ambassador Hérnandez added.
Hernández ended his brief speech by emphasizing that it was vital to attend this XXX
Council with an integration-oriented outlook in order to ensure success in the
strengthening and restructuring of SELA. We have overcome the most difficult part, namely
coming to discuss the specific economic issues that pertain to us but that also cause us
concern. I therefore hope that in the course of this meeting we will all work in harmony
determined to tackle the challenge that we have ahead of us: integration to achieve
progress or isolation to fall into backwardness.
The XXX Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council will continue tomorrow with the
inauguration of the ministerial phase which is slated for 5 p.m. and which will be chaired
by the Permanent Secretary and by a representative of the Venezuelan government. The
deliberations are scheduled to end on Wednesday, 24 November.
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