The final stretch of the long-awaited Summit of Heads of State of the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), scheduled in Brussels for the 17th and 18th of this month, is marked by low expectations and by the controversy surrounding the participation of the three dictatorships, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Deputies of the European Popular Group already demanded last week, after the disqualification of the opposition candidate María Corina Machado was made public, that the invitation to Nicolás Maduro be withdrawn and that he be made available to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in case of traveling to the Belgian capital.
Each of the presences, or finally absences, of the “people’s president” in international meetings is marked by a tug of war that is only decided in the hours before. The person in charge of distributing the invitations to the presidents of the Americas is the protempore presidency of CELAC, currently in the hands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a close ally of Chavismo. In political gossip in Caracas, it is doubtful whether the person who replaces Maduro, if he does not go, is his vice president and right-hand man, Delcy Rodríguez, who is sanctioned by the EU.
“It is difficult for him because his prohibition extends to even transit through European countries. I suppose that if he goes it is because the EU and Belgium give guarantees that he can do it,” internationalist Mariano de Alba, senior advisor to the Crisis Group, told EL MUNDO . In case neither of the two travel, the Venezuelan representation would fall to Foreign Minister Yván Gil.
Among the most significant obstacles to the success of the Summit is the proximity of the Spanish general elections, which the EU is presiding over this semester, and the “many difficulties for the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition to defining a cooperation agenda, concrete some initiatives. The current paradigmatic case is the obstacles that persist to finalize an agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries”, sentenced De Alba.
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