Born in 2011 as a space for political concertation without the United States or Canada, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States brings together today 33 countries and more than 600 million people. Among diplomatic advances, integration ambitions, and structural limits, CELAC seeks to consolidate itself as a regional actor with global projection.
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is the broadest and most ambitious attempt in the region to speak with a single voice. It brings together the 33 sovereign states of Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding the United States and Canada, and functions as an intergovernmental forum for political dialogue and cooperation. Its goal: to strengthen regional unity, coordinate common positions, and project the region in an increasingly fragmented international scenario.
The idea took shape in February 2010, during the Summit of Unity of Latin America and the Caribbean held in Playa del Carmen (Mexico), when governments agreed to create their own mechanism that integrated previous experiences such as the Group of Rio and the Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean (CALC). The process culminated in December 2011, in Caracas, with the signing of the Declaration of Caracas, which formally gave birth to CELAC as a “representative mechanism for political concertation, cooperation, and integration.”
Since then, CELAC has gone through different stages. After a start marked by integrative enthusiasm, it held annual summits of heads of state and government and adopted declarations of strong symbolic weight. The most notable was the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a “Zone of Peace” in 2014, a collective commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and respect for international law.
The functioning of the organization reflects its flexible and non-supranational character. It does not have a permanent secretariat or its own budget. Coordination falls to a Pro Tempore Presidency, which rotates each year among member states, supported by meetings of foreign ministers, national coordinators, and sectoral technical groups. Decisions are made by consensus, which guarantees sovereign equality but also limits the speed and depth of agreements.
Regarding its agenda, CELAC covers a wide range: social development, eradication of hunger, education, science and technology, gender equality, fighting corruption, migration, climate change, or energy integration. One of its most concrete projects has been the Food Security, Nutrition, and Hunger Eradication Plan, promoted with support from organizations such as FAO and CEPAL, which made food security a regional priority.
The greatest impact of CELAC, however, has occurred in the diplomatic field. The bloc acts as a regional interlocutor with other international actors. The CELAC–European Union summits, the CELAC–China Forum —launched in 2015— and dialogues with countries and regions in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East have strengthened the external projection of Latin America and the Caribbean as a collective actor. In a context of geopolitical tensions and a crisis of multilateralism, this capacity for joint interlocution is one of its main assets.
Still, the economic results are more modest. CELAC is not a trade bloc nor does it establish binding rules for economic integration. Intra-regional trade remains low —around 14% of total exports— and proposals to advance in payments in local currencies, shared infrastructures, or regional value chains progress slowly.
The internal political divisions have been another obstacle. Between 2018 and 2019, no presidential summits were held, and in 2020 Brazil temporarily suspended its participation, citing a lack of effectiveness. The subsequent reactivation of the mechanism, with summits in Mexico, Buenos Aires, and Tegucigalpa, and the full reintegration of Brazil, showed both the fragility and resilience of the forum.
The X Summit, held in Bogotá in March 2026, symbolized that effort for continuity. Under the pro tempore presidency of Colombia, the countries renewed their commitment to regional integration, multilateralism, and South-South cooperation, and transferred coordination to Uruguay, in an attempt to provide stability to the common agenda.
More than a decade after its creation, CELAC is, at the same time, a political achievement and an unfinished project. It has demonstrated that the region can coordinate and project itself united abroad, but it has also highlighted the difficulties in translating declarations into concrete policies. Its future will largely depend on the political will of its members to provide it with greater continuity, resources, and clear priorities. In a transforming world, CELAC remains the main space where Latin America and the Caribbean test their historical aspiration for unity in diversity.
