Latin America creates regional bloc excluding US and Canada; Uribe-Chavez spat spoils the mood

Latin America creates bloc without US and Canada

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Leaders of 32 nations agreed Tuesday to create a new regional bloc including every country in the Americas except Canada and the United States, a show of unity marred when the Venezuelan and Colombian presidents hurled insults at each other.

Honduras, which was not invited to the conference because of last year’s coup, could eventually join.

The new organization will defend democracy and human rights and foster cooperation among Latin American and Caribbean countries, said Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the host of the Grupo del Rio summit at a resort in the Yucatan peninsula.

Few details of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States have been worked out, and its formation is expected to take years. The leaders agreed to meet in Venezuela in 2011 and in Chile the next year as part of the process.

The leaders disagree on whether the bloc should replace the Washington-based Organization of American States, the largest diplomatic bloc in Western Hemisphere, which has been heavily influenced by the United States.

“It’s very important that we don’t try to replace the OAS. The OAS is a permanent organization that has its own functions,” said Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera.

Conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Venezuela’s leftist Hugo Chavez, whose relations have long been testy, gave a taste of the sort of disputes the new bloc will have to tackle.

At a dinner Monday night, Uribe started complaining about a trade sanctions Venezuela has imposed on Colombia, according to an official who recounted the exchange to reporters including The Associated Press.

Chavez retaliated by claiming that Venezuela was constantly threatened by paramilitaries in the neighboring country and suggesting that the Colombian government was behind those threats. The Venezuelan leader tried to storm off but stopped when Uribe implied he was a coward.

“Be a man. Stay here because sometimes you insult from a distance but when we are face-to-face to we don’t talk,” Uribe said, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Chavez told Uribe to “go to hell,” according to Venezuelan state television’s description of the altercation.

Calderon and Cuban President Raul Castro intervened to calm the two presidents down, and the leaders agreed to create a “group of friends” to mediate between the bickering leaders.

The Venezuelan and Colombian governments tried to play down the incident Monday.

Chavez said he was confident the two countries “regain trust and transparent relations” through mediation.

Colombian Foreign Minister Jamie Bermudez acknowledged there had been “a heated discussion” but said “the group of friends would help Colombia and Venezuela confront sensitive issues.”