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Permanent Secretary
of SELA proposes In a speech to representatives of the 28 SELA Member States, Boye pointed out that after the terrorist attacks against U.S. civilian and military targets on 11 September, it is necessary to incorporate "the terrorism variable" into studies and analyses that will be prepared in the region regarding its future reality. "This is something new. To date, this topic has been studied in a casuistic manner as the phenomenon appeared in some countries. Now an effort will have to be made to fill that void. The goal will be to transform Latin America and the Caribbean into an area free of terrorism," said Boye. "Given the complexity of the topic and the concrete difficulties in achieving this ambitious goal, all actors capable of motivating this task must participate, from academic centres of study and non-governmental organizations to government entities. All must be convened," he added. The Council, the highest decision-making body of the Latin American Economic System (SELA), whose discussions end today, proposed the topic of "Latin American and Caribbean Integration vis-a-vis the Challenges of the Current International Situation" as the central work topic of the Permanent Secretariat, the executive body of SELA, for the year 2002. Bastidas, currently in charge of the Presidency of Venezuela, expressed the support of her government for the central work topic assigned to the Permanent Secretariat of SELA, and stated that this institution "will have special relevance in light of the current international situation." After backing Ambassador Boye's proposal and condemning the terrorist actions of any type, Bastidas also severely criticized those she called "fundamentalists" of globalization, a development model whose results "haven't been the best." As an example, she pointed out
that in the 1980s, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Latin America decreased more than
10 percent and that economic growth had been lower in the 1990s than that recorded in the
period of "inward growth." In another part of her speech she stated that today "a new form of integration is being proposed to us, the FTAA, a model we must evaluate and analyze." In this regard, she reiterated the position of the Venezuelan government that the FTAA "is only an option." As a countermeasure she
proposed the consolidation of regional integration plans such as the Andean Community,
MERCOSUR, the G-3 or those existing in the Caribbean region that "have the potential
of contributing to the creation of a more balanced world." In this regard, the Chairman of the XXVII Meeting of the Latin American Council, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru, Luis Marchand, said that our region must immediately confront the "very far-reaching" challenge of negotiations for the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (the FTAA). "Latin America and the Caribbean must coordinate its position with respect to the FTAA and globalization, because it would be harmful if we ultimately had to confront the corollary that some were the chosen and others the not chosen," said Marchand, while he underscored that the policy worldwide continues to be "the validity of the interests" of peoples and nations. As to the future of SELA as an
institution, Marchand quoted former Colombian President Alberto Lleras Camargo, who stated
that institutions are "whatever their member countries wish them to be."
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