Commonwealth of the Bahamas Joins SELA
Caracas, 7th May. The Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American System, SELA, with headquarters in Caracas, informed today that the Commonwealth of the Bahamas has become the 28th Member State of this organization.
Sources within the organisation have pointed out that through its accession, the Bahamas was not only seeking to establish closer ties with the countries of Latin America, but has demonstrated its confidence in SELA as an organisation for promoting regional integration and cooperation and the greater participation of Latin America and the Caribbean in the global economy.
On 25th March the government of the Bahamas deposited its instrument of accession to the Panama Convention, the treaty establishing the Latin American Economic System. The Bahamas became a member on April 24 of this year, that is, thirty days following the deposit of the instrument of accession. The Panama Convention establishes that SELA, an intergovernmental organisation, is open to membership by any sovereign state in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
The decision to invite into SELA the Bahamas , a country which gained its independence from Britain in 1973, was taken in 1996 during the annual meeting of the Latin American Council, the highest decision-making body of the organisation.
On that occasion the members states agreed that the Permanent Secretariat should initiate discussions with states in the region which were not yet members of SELA in an attempt to encourage the widest possible membership in the organisation which groups most countries in the region.
The organisation was established in 1975 at a time when Latin America was seeking a forum to encourage region-wide integration and to facilitate the coordination of positions vis-à-vis international organisations such as the GATT, UNDP and UNCTAD.
In addition to the Bahamas, SELA´s membership includes 10 Caribbean countries, namely Barbados, Belize, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as all countries in Central and South America.
The Bahamas, which is a member of the Caribbean Community has participated in Community decisions to develop closer ties with Latin America through cooperation and economic integration.
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