Community of Latin American and Caribbean States

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Spanish: Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, CELAC, Portuguese: Comunidade de Estados Latino-Americanos e Caribenhos, French: Communauté des États Latino-Américains et Caribéens, Dutch: Gemeenschap van de Latijns-Amerikaanse en Caribische landen) is the tentative name[1] of a regional bloc of Latin American and Caribbean nations created on February 23, 2010, at the Rio Group-Caribbean Community Unity Summit held in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. It consists of all sovereign countries in the Americas, except for Canada, France, the Netherlands, and the United States.
CELAC is an example of a decade-long push for deeper integration within America. CELAC is being created to deepen Latin American Integration and to reduce the once overwhelming influence of the United States on the politics and economics of Latin America, and is seen as an alternative to the Organization of American States (OAS), the regional body organized largely by Washington in 1948 as a countermeasure to potential Soviet influence in the region.
CELAC will be the successor of the Rio Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development (CALC).In July 2010 CELAC selected Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the newly elected conservative president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, as co-chairs of the forum that will draft statutes for the organization.


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