COMMUNITY

MONTEVIDEO, 24 JULY 2026.— All five Latin American and Caribbean candidates for United Nations
Secretary-General will take part in a public regional dialogue in Montevideo on 3 August, offering
governments and audiences across the region an opportunity to compare their proposals for the future of
the UN.

Convened by the Government of Uruguay, current Pro Tempore Presidency of the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States (CELAC), together with the GQUAL Campaign and CEPEI, the dialogue will
offer the States of the region — as well as international organizations, civil society, academia, youth, the
media and the general public — the opportunity to listen to the candidates’ visions for the future of the
United Nations and of the role that Latin America and the Caribbean can play on the global agenda.

Journalist Carmen Aristegui, founder and director of Aristegui Noticias, will moderate the dialogue.
Michelle Bachelet (Chile, nominated by Brazil and Mexico), María Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador, nominated
by Antigua and Barbuda) and Rebeca Grynspan (Costa Rica, nominated by her own country) will
participate in person. Rafael Mariano Grossi (Argentina) and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana), both
nominated by their respective States, will join virtually.

From a regional perspective, the dialogue will address the candidacies’ proposals on the reform of the
United Nations; peace and security in the face of challenges such as transnational organized crime and
threats to democratic governance; the strengthening of international law and human rights; equality and
inclusion; the Organization’s relationship with new generations; and the building of sustainable
development capable of responding simultaneously to the climate crisis and to persistent inequalities.

The candidates will answer common questions and take part on equal terms, with equivalent speaking
times and an order of intervention determined by draw. The dialogue will also include questions from the
audience, with particular attention to the participation of youth.

During a second segment, the authorities of CELAC Member States will be able to put forward questions,
interventions and positions on the selection process and on the priorities they consider central to the
future leadership of the United Nations. The candidates will then have a closing space in which to respond
to the main issues raised and to present their vision of the leadership that the multilateral system
requires.

The event will be held in a hybrid format, in Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation into English, and will
be livestreamed on the channel of the Presidency of Uruguay and by Aristegui Noticias

A decisive selection for the future of the United Nations

The regional dialogue will take place at a particularly significant moment in the process to select the next
holder of the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The process has already passed
through several stages, and the United Nations Security Council is preparing to begin the phase of
deliberations that will culminate in its recommendation to the General Assembly, which is responsible for
appointing the person who will succeed António Guterres when his term ends on 1 January 2027.

The decision comes at a time when the United Nations faces a convergence of armed conflicts,
geopolitical fragmentation, humanitarian crises, the climate emergency, democratic erosion and growing
questioning of the multilateral system’s capacity to respond effectively to increasingly interconnected
challenges.

Against that backdrop, the decision is not limited to appointing the highest authority of the UN. It also
requires defining what kind of leadership the Organization needs in order to regain trust, build agreements
among States with divergent interests and respond effectively to increasingly interconnected crises.
While the candidates have already presented their visions before the General Assembly and in various
international forums, until now there has been no space driven from Latin America and the Caribbean in
which to debate publicly with the candidacies on the basis of the region’s own priorities, perspectives and
challenges.

Latin America and the Caribbean at the centre of the conversation

Of the six official candidacies currently taking part in the process, five come from Latin America and the
Caribbean. The process also coincides with a moment in which numerous United Nations Member States
hold that, in application of the principle of equitable geographic rotation, it falls to the region to assume
the leadership of the Organization.

This position was reaffirmed in March by the 33 countries gathered at the Tenth Summit of Heads of State
and Government of CELAC, held in Bogotá, where they maintained that the time has come for a national of
Latin America and the Caribbean to hold the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations. Although
regional rotation does not legally determine the outcome, it expresses a political aspiration for greater
balance and diversity in the leadership of the Organization.

The region comes to this process with a long tradition of defending international law, the peaceful
settlement of disputes, the promotion of human rights, democracy and multilateral cooperation. At the
same time, it faces structural challenges linked to inequality, violence, transnational organized crime,
migration, climate vulnerability and development constraints.

Precisely because of that combination of strengths and challenges, the Montevideo Regional Dialogue
seeks to ensure that Latin America and the Caribbean takes part in this selection not only through its
candidacies, but also through a regional conversation on the priorities, the reforms and the leadership that
the multilateral system will require in the years ahead.