After PASO, Alberto assumes Celac and speaks at the UN

President Alberto Fernández has already scheduled a trip abroad immediately after the OSP, with an agenda still under construction but with two central activities: on September 18, he will assume the presidency pro tempore of the Community of Latin American States and the Caribbean in Mexico. (Celac) and three days later, on the 21st, he will speak at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In the government, they attach particular importance to the leadership of Celac because, in agreement with Mexico, they bet on the organization to gain volume in the region due to the discredit of the OAS. As for the UN, this will be Fernández’s first face-to-face meeting, since he exhibited last year through a video.

“The OAS as it is does not work. The first one who has to do a mea culpa is Mr. (Luis) Almagro for the amount of things he has done ”, Fernandez stressed at the last summit of the Puebla group. “We only disagree in this area,” he said, adding that he was working hard to make Celac “the place of replacement”. Unlike the OAS, neither the United States nor Canada participates in Celac, unlike Cuba. In addition, the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro has a representative in Celac, while the OAS is made up of the spooky leadership of Juan Guaidó.

Chancellor Felipe Solá and his chief of staff Guillermo Justo Chaves took part in Celac’s Foreign Minister’s summit last month, where they managed to garner a majority of support for Argentina to succeed Mexico as president pro tempore in 2022. Colombia, who also aspired to this place, finally gave in and announced their support for Fernández. Curiously, all right-wing governments support him: besides Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay also support him, as confirmed by President Luis Lacalle Pou during the dinner they organized in Olivos on Friday. Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil has suspended its participation in the organization due to the permanence of Venezuela.

On the other hand, in the last few hours, a problem has arisen with the country bloc ALBA, due to Nicaragua’s anger against the Argentine government for the withdrawal of its ambassador. In reaction, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega proposed to the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a Caribbean island of 100,000 inhabitants, to preside over Celac. At Argentina’s foreign ministry, they have entered into dialogues with Caribbean countries to persuade them to go ahead with Fernández’s initial appointment plan. They hoped to crown the efforts with success in the coming weeks.

In the big apple

Now reconverted into the new pro tempore president of Celac – if all goes according to plan – Fernández will continue on his way to the United Nations. The assembly will be held according to strict protocols, it will therefore take place with a restricted entourage. Beyond Solá, he will surely be accompanied by Martín Guzmán, Gustavo Beliz and Julio Vitobello. He will be the 24th Head of State to speak on the opening day, Tuesday 21. In the government, they have calculated that it will be around 5:00 pm. In total, there are already 80 leaders from all over the world who have confirmed their attendance in person. .

As usual, there are activities that will take place in parallel with the Assembly in which Fernández wishes to participate. On Monday 20, there is a summit on the pandemic and vaccines but its participation has not yet been confirmed. On the other hand, it is certain that it will be part of the Summit on Food Systems convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, where Argentina will seek to plant its position in terms of food production and the fight against hunger. . Finally, on Wednesday 22, he will be part of the meeting of world leaders which will commemorate the 20 years of the Durban Declaration against Racism.

Apart from that, Fernández left the indication to set up a vast program of bilateral meetings, an issue on which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ambassador to the United States, Jorge Argüello, and the representative to the UN , María del Carmen Squeff, are already working. But between these meetings, host Joe Biden surely won’t be there. The government does not want a meeting on the go like the one that could take place within the framework of the United Nations, but the aim is for Fernández to be received at the White House to review the bilateral and regional agenda. Mostly, of course, debt negotiations with the IMF, in which Biden can play a decisive role. Argüello is moving forward with the idea of ​​getting this meeting before the end of the year.