Brazil’s centre-left administration returns to regional integration

Brazil has returned to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) after winning the election of centre-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and can put forward initiatives in the field of Latin American integration up to the creation of a single currency. This became clear after the summit of CELAC leaders, held on January 24 in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. Unlike the Organization of American States (OAS), CELAC does not include the United States and Canada, but its member is Cuba, which was actually expelled from the OAS in 1962. Under the previous, right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil left the organization in 2020 and joined the Southern Progress Forum. America (Prosur), founded in March 2019 in Chile by right-wing governments in Latin America.

“Brazil is returning to the international arena and will work to strengthen Mercosur (a common market for South American countries, an economic and political agreement between Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela. – Vedomosti),” Lula said. “On our own, we are weak.”