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The fourth summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) has kicked off today in Santa Marta, Colombia.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, is among the bloc’s leaders attending the meeting.
Speaking at the event upon her arrival, Kallas said the EU’s position on the US attacks in the Caribbean and the Pacific is to uphold international law, meaning the use of force is justified only in self-defence or under a UN Security Council resolution.
The Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoof, said it is important to restore calm in the Caribbean Sea and urged leaders to work towards reducing tensions.
The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Juan Ramon de la Fuente, also commented on the US attacks on vessels on the Caribbean Sea, saying Mexico’s position seeks to respect the “sovereignty of peoples and their self-determination.”
According to the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, the US has reported carrying out 14 strikes since September on boats near the Venezuelan coast and also in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The sources stated that 69 people have been killed in these attacks on alleged drug-smuggling vessels.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called the deaths “extrajudicial executions” and has identified at least one of the killed as a Colombian citizen. One of two known survivors of the attacks is also Colombian.
Absence of senior names might have downgraded the effect
With this summit, representatives of European, Latin American and Caribbean nations try to strengthen ties amid divisions in the Western Hemisphere over the US military operation targeting alleged drug-carrying vessels.
But the relevance of the two-day summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the European Union has come into question due to the absence of heads of state and senior officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
