Community of Latin American and Caribbean States
Regional · CELAC
Four languages carry the proclamation the members signed at Havana on 29 January 2014: Spanish, English, French and Portuguese. Every sovereign state of the Americas belongs except the United States and Canada. A summit declaration is the whole of the founding instrument, so there is nothing to ratify, no secretariat and no headquarters, and a pro tempore presidency passes to a member each year.
Common questions
Questions about CELAC
Which countries are in CELAC?
Every sovereign state of the Americas except the United States and Canada. That is the whole of the test, so the membership runs from Mexico through Central America and the Caribbean to the southern cone, and it takes in the states whose working languages are Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Dutch. Cuba is a member, which is the difference most often pointed to between this list and the roster of the Organization of American States.
Is CELAC a replacement for the Organization of American States?
Its own papers say not. They describe a mechanism for political dialogue and coordination that complements the regional architecture already in place rather than duplicating it, and its members remain parties to the OAS Charter signed at Bogotá on 30 April 1948. Commentary published around the founding summit at Caracas in December 2011 read it the other way, as a hemispheric body built without the United States and Canada in it. Both readings are in print and neither is settled here.
Does joining CELAC mean signing a treaty?
No. The community was constituted by summit declaration rather than by an instrument opened for signature, so there is nothing to ratify, no depositary, no accession date on any member's record and no denunciation clause. Brazil stopped taking part in January 2020 and resumed in January 2023 without either step requiring a document.
What is the pro tempore presidency?
The one piece of standing machinery the community has. A single member holds it for a year, convenes the meetings, and carries the administration through its own foreign ministry, because there is no secretariat and no headquarters to do it. Chile held the first turn in 2012 and Cuba the next in 2013. The ninth summit, at Tegucigalpa on 9 April 2025, passed it from Honduras to Colombia.
What languages does CELAC use?
The Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed at Havana on 29 January 2014, was written in the Spanish, English, French and Portuguese languages. Dutch, which is official in Suriname, is not among them, so the texts do not cover every member's official language.
Sources
- ¿Qué es la CELAC? · Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), which keeps the community's documentary record. The creation at Playa del Carmen on 23 February 2010, the constitution at Caracas on 2 and 3 December 2011, the five bodies including the pro tempore quartet, and the description of the community as complementing rather than duplicating the existing regional architecture.
- The Community of Latin America and Caribbean States · Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. The founding at Playa del Carmen in February 2010, the definitive establishment at Caracas in December 2011, and the pro tempore presidency.
- Official text: Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace · The operative paragraphs and the closing clause, signed at Havana on the 29th day of January 2014 in a copy written in the Spanish, English, French and Portuguese languages.
- CELAC / Zone of Peace: a key step to countering the globalization of militarism · Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The adoption of the proclamation at the second summit at Havana in January 2014.
- Joint press release: fourth CELAC-EU summit to take place on 9-10 November 2025 · Council of the European Union. The date and venue of the fourth summit at Santa Marta, agreed with the pro tempore presidency.
- Joint declaration of the CELAC-EU summit 2025, Santa Marta, Colombia · Council of the European Union. The declaration of 9 November 2025, the accompanying texts on citizen security and on a bi-regional pact for care, the roadmap to 2027 and the fifth summit set for Brussels.
- EU-CELAC summits · European Parliament, Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. The summit series with the European Union from Santiago in January 2013.
- Honduras hands over CELAC's rotating presidency to Colombia · MercoPress. The ninth summit at Tegucigalpa and the transfer of the pro tempore presidency on 9 April 2025.
- Return of Brazil to CELAC · Ministério das Relações Exteriores, Brazil. The resumption of Brazilian participation in January 2023, three years after it stopped.
- Annual Report of the Secretary General 2009-2010 · Organization of American States. The operative text of AG/RES. 2438 (XXXIX-O/09) on Cuba, adopted at the thirty-ninth regular session held at San Pedro Sula from 2 to 4 June 2009, which ended Resolution VI of 31 January 1962.
- Charter of the Organization of American States (A-41): signatories and ratifications · Department of International Law, OAS, the treaty's own depositary. The signature at Bogotá on 30 April 1948 and every deposit since.