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Weekly Report - 31 January 2013 (WR-13-04)

US missing from the party but offers most coveted gift

When Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez launched the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) in December 2011 he set great store by the fact that it included every country south of the Rio Grande and none north of it; that it sounded the death knell for the Organization of American States (OAS); and the fulfilment of Simόn Bolívar’s dream of regional unity. The contrast between his speech and that of Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera, who hosted the second Celac summit at the weekend, could hardly have been greater. Piñera, who also welcomed heads of state from the European Union (EU) to a joint summit, moved the focus from grand visions to prosaic reality; from historical and ideological concerns to economic and trade concerns. For many countries in the region, however, the biggest development of the week was not in Santiago but Washington, where US President Barack Obama announced a sweeping immigration reform proposal.

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