SELA: 46 years doing history for Latin American and Caribbean integration

We, at the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), are celebrating our 46^th anniversary, committed to advance a consultation and coordination system for common stances and strategies within the economic and social purview.

Our challenges are by no means negligible. Seated in Caracas and with more than 25 Member States, our organisation celebrates this 46^th anniversary, strongly committed to address the urgent needs of countries through permanent consultation and agreement, determined always to bolster integration and cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

From the very outset, on 17 October 1975, we have kept and honoured our commitment under the Panama Convention, our foundational agreement. There, the need is acknowledged to set up a standing system for intra-regional economic and social cooperation, consultation and coordination of Latin America and the Caribbean, both in international organizations and before third countries and groups of countries.

We are keenly aware of the necessary unity of nations to ensure supportive actions in the field of intra-regional economic and social cooperation, increase bargaining power and find a proper, legitimate niche in the international community for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We must recover the best practices laid down in the Panama Convention establishing SELA, whose main mandate is to further integration, converge and regionalize common positions and strategies to the benefit of all countries,” Ambassador Clarems Endara, Permanent Secretary of SELA, remarked.

Clearly, for Ambassador Clarems Endara, SELA has a duty to address the pressing needs of every country in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Hence, the organization has been working on a survey for Member States, earmarked for major action areas within the new regional agenda for the years ahead.

Focused on a method of consulting, building and proposing, SELA has identified three thematic areas, as part of the draft work plan.

“We have a huge task in an effort to restate the work of SELA for 2022,” the Permanent Secretary said. “We purport to act as a region. We are working on an agenda that allows us to restructure the target areas. The (Permanent) Secretariat has a big responsibility with the region, seeking to join efforts to materialize an agenda with assurances of domestic economic and social development of individual countries,” the ambassador added.

This new year of SELA, we will keep on working, contributing to development, linkage and convergence of Latin American and Caribbean integration.