Leaders from 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations met in Havana and pledged to create a regional “Zone of Peace”, respecting and cooperating with each other, without the use of arms and free from the meddling and domineering influence of Washington, DC.

They signed an agreement to respect “the inalienable right of every state to choose its political, economic, social and cultural system,” Cuban President Raul Castro said, reading from the text of the resolution – a clear reference to America’s past aggression and attempts to exclude Cuba from the regional stage. 

Cuba went Communist in 1959 and was kicked out of the Organization of American States (OAS) as a result.  But after decades of interference and coups directed from up north, Cuba in 2011 spearheaded the formation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as an alternative to the US-led group.

Three years later, peace and cooperation are taking hold.  The Presidents of Chile and Peru made a joint appearance to publicly put behind them their nations' century-old maritime border dispute, which was resolved earlier this week at the United Nations.

“We are sure that by sharing experience between the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, we will be able to enrich public policy in every one of our nations,” said outgoing Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, a staunch conservative – while sitting next to his elected Socialist successor Michelle Bachelet.  Peace and cooperation.

Some left-leaning presidents railed against US domination and “savage capitalism”.  Colombia’s conservative free marketer President Juan Manuel Santos championed Free trade’s potential to spur growth. 

But it was Uruguay’s beloved and grandfatherly President Jose Mujica who stole the show with his impassioned denunciation of the business suit.

“We have to dress like English gentlemen!” exclaimed “Pepe”, a humble man known as “the world’s poorest president”, who refuses limousines and the presidential palace, instead living in his small farm house and driving his ancient, rear engine VW Beetle to work every day.  “That’s the suit that industrialization imposed on the world!”

“Even the Japanese had to abandon their kimonos to have prestige in the world,” he continued, gesturing forcefully and rapping a pen on the table to punctuate his words.  “We all had to dress up like monkeys with ties.”

Some Anglophone media accounts seemed to find this hilarious, not catching his clever metaphor about clothing:  Mujica was really saying that Latin American leaders must stay faithful to their cultural roots and not alienate the common man in a region where the wealthy are a tiny minority.