BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – Representatives from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean will meet in Colombia on Sunday to strengthen ties amid the Western Hemisphere’s division over issues. US military strategy Targeting containers believed to carry drugs.
However, the relevance of the two-day summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the European Union has been called into question due to the absence of national leaders and senior officials, including the president of the European Commission. Ursula von der LeyenChancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz.
Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the problem on a scheduling conflict with the government. united nations climate summit He then sought to downplay concerns by highlighting the presence of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Colombian officials said they would urge the conference’s host city to sign the Santa Marta Declaration on issues such as renewable energy, food security, financing and technical cooperation. But the deadly US military operation is likely to be the focus of significant debate, as the host nation’s leader, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, is one of Colombia’s strongest critics.
Since September, the United States has attacked suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing more than 60 people. Petro called the deaths “extrajudicial executions” and identified at least one of the dead as a Colombian national. One of the two known survivors of the attack is also Colombian.
“This is clearly a priority for several regional leaders,” said Alexander Mayne, director of international policy at the Center for Economic Policy Research think tank.
Mayne said the meeting in Colombia will be the last high-level multilateral summit to be held in the region this year, as this year’s Summit of the Americas has been postponed. Given that the United States is not a party to the summit, this could make it easier for governments to openly address the central issue of military deployment.
Lula surprised officials on Wednesday by announcing he would attend the summit in Colombia, as Brazil is the host country. COP30 climate conference. Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told reporters that Lula’s decision to attend the summit in Colombia reflected regional solidarity with Venezuela.
Gisela Padovan, Brazil’s ambassador to Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of military action against Venezuela and references to recent attacks on ships in the Caribbean would be natural topics at the summit.
“It’s clear that this topic will be raised because the Venezuelan delegation will bring it up,” Padovan said. However, he did not tell reporters whether the issue would be included in the rally’s final statement.
Lula appealed to Latin American countries to cooperate in preventing conflict in Venezuela. On Tuesday, he also told reporters that he had urged Trump in Malaysia last month to follow the example of former U.S. President George W. Bush, who joined efforts to placate Venezuela after the 2002 coup attempt against then-President Hugo Chávez.
“I told President Trump that Latin America is a peaceful region,” Lula said.
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Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and Gabriela Sá Pessoa in São Paulo, Venezuela, contributed to this report.
