“Who should I phone if I want to talk to Europe?” The phrase, loaded with sarcasm, is attributed to Henry Kissinger, head of American Diplomacy during the Nixon Administration and one of the great strategists during the Cold War, referring to a stage in which the European Union was under construction.
These days, in Santa Marta, the oldest city in Latin America, the question could be perfectly formulated for the region, although with much less acidity, aware as Europeans are of how difficult it is to reach consensus. Who to call? To the block of Lula, Boric and Petro? Are they a block? To Bukele, Milei or Noboa? Jerí or Rodrigo Paz? Perhaps there has not been such a fragmented region in 30 years (“We have become a balkanized and divided region,” Lula said). And of the aforementioned proper names, only the Colombian leader, host of the event, and the Brazilian came to the CELAC and EU Summit. There was a very powerful presence, not in mortal flesh but in spirit, that of Donald Trump.
In the midst of escalating tariffs, growing conflict over missile attacks on drug boats and direct coercion on national politics (as has happened with Brazil or Argentina), the declaration does not mention the United States, given that, by doing so, it would be difficult for many countries to sign it.
The desire for transatlantic rapprochement has found a stimulus in Trump, but that is not enough to overcome the internal tensions in each region. A few months ago, the Spanish politician Ramón Jáuregui, president of the Euroamerica Foundation, defended the opportunity to prepare an offer on migration matters for Latin America and the Caribbean within the framework of this summit. With human mobility stopped short towards the United States and the European need for those same people, Jáuregui defended the opening of consulates to orderly immigration. Apart from Spain, today’s Europe does not seem willing to open that conversation.
The final declaration of the summit included a generic paragraph on “the importance of strengthening” cooperation in “the management of migration, including return processes, and we recall our commitment to deepen cooperation and dialogue on migration and mobility in a comprehensive, balanced and integrated manner (etc…)”. A pact was also signed for the cities and another for the security of citizens. “We must work on everything, but perhaps it is better that we concentrate on two or three things, it is a summit in which many things have been discussed,” said a diplomat on Friday at the hotel where the leaders’ meeting was being held. And it’s true, but it’s still a notable, if less obvious, absence.
“Despite having countries here with very different ideological orientations, we managed to have a joint position on the most critical issues of the moment,” said the president of the European Council, António Costa. There has been reinforcement of environmental commitment, calls for attention to the authoritarian drift in Nicaragua and Venezuela (without naming them) and a strong defense of multilateralism that today no longer sounds commonplace. In the economic section, when there is talk of finally signing the agreement with Mercosur and large investments, we miss, however, something more specific about the mobility of workers.
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