Transcript
MAURICIO CÁRDENAS: As you aware of, Latin America is undergoing important changes. The region as a whole is one that has strengthened its economies and also strengthened its democracies. The region is also undergoing major political changes in terms of choices and policies, in strategies. And as part of that change in Latin America, in the past few years, there have been a significant number of initiatives to create groups, to form blocs.
The first one, UNASUR, which includes the countries of South America, was launched three years ago with the idea of creating a space for the discussion of a number of issues, all of them related to development - economic, political, diplomatic and military.
Most recently, the Grupo de Rio meeting in Cancún launched another initiative, the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. The distinctive feature of that community, or intention, is the exclusion of the United States and Canada, to have really a regional grouping that will be another forum for the debate of political and economic issues.
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