MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil steps out from Celac, because of its failure “to protect democracy”

“CELAC had not been generating results in defense of democracy or in any area,” Brazilian foreign minister Ernesto Araújo said.

Brazil has decided to suspend its participation in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, a leftist regional body established by Venezuela, due to its failure to protect democracy, Brazil's foreign minister said on Thursday.

Writing on his Twitter account, Ernesto Araújo said Brazil was also pulling out because the organization, known as CELAC, had become a “stage” for authoritarian states, citing Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

“CELAC had not been generating results in defense of democracy or in any area,” Araújo said.

Appointed by Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, Araújo has echoed the Brazilian leader's longstanding criticisms of leftist Latin American governments. “Brazil works for an agenda of freedom, prosperity, security and open integration”, underlined Araújo.

Countries across the region have, over the past few years, oscillated between left-wing and conservative governments, often with radically different economic and social policies.

Bolsonaro is the most visible right-wing leader in Latin America, while Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is the highest-profile leftist leader. Brazil is the region's biggest economy, followed by Mexico.

Last week Mexican president Lopez Obrador convened a Celac summit, but Brazil did not attend, while Argentina was present with its foreign minister Felipe Solá..

Since last year, anger at inequality and poverty have pushed conservatives out in Mexico and Argentina, while fueling protests in recent weeks that forced Ecuador and Chile to water down austerity-focused economic policies.

Celac was established in Venezuela during the late President Hugo Chavez's government and decisive support from ex Brazilian president Lula da Silva, but has lost influence in recent years. The original idea was to replace or water down the influence of the Washington based Organization of American States, and did not include the US or Canada

Despite pulling out of the CELAC, Araújo said Brazil remained committed to working in all other regional bodies, such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and Mercosur.