MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New Latam block “consistent with US goals for the hemisphere”

Philip Crowley, State Department spokesperson

The new Latin American and Caribbean bloc planned without regional neighbours Canada and the United States are consistent with US goals for the region, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday

“We think it's a good thing when countries in the region come together, to talk about how they can cooperate more effectively. And this can take place in many regional forms,” Philip Crowley told reporters about the plans agreed by Latin American and Caribbean leaders in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun.

“We consider the meeting in Mexico as consistent with our goals for the hemisphere.”

The new group has been described as an alternative to the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes the North American neighbours and has been the main forum for regional affairs in the past half-century.

On Monday, US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela said the United States did not see the new grouping as a problem as long as it was not an effort to replace the Washington-based OAS.

Bitter Washington foes presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Bolivia's Evo Morales have said the new bloc would allow the region to act without interference from the “imperialist” United States.

Further details of the Community of Latinamerican and Caribbean States mechanism, including its definitive name, are to be decided at a meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, July 2011.