Leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean pledged closer ties to safeguard their economies from the world financial crisis as they formed a new bloc on Saturday including every nation in the hemisphere except the U.S. and Canada. Several presidents stressed during the two-day summit that they hope to ride out turbulent times by boosting local industries and increasing trade within the region. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that if the nations are to keep thriving they will need to look more to their neighbors. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the region has immense potential "in this world that's going through great uncertainty, where there's a hurricane that's hitting the so-called industrialized economies hard." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez read aloud a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao congratulating the leaders on forming a new 33-nation regional bloc, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Hu pledged to deepen cooperation with the new group, which he said will "contribute in a significant way to strengthening the unity and the coordination among the region's countries to face global challenges together." Argentine President Cristina Fernandez noted that experts believe the region could be vulnerable to fallout from the economic crisis. She said trade among the countries should be a priority. The leaders on Saturday planned to formally launch the organization by approving the group's procedural rules as well as a clause dealing with democratic norms and a declaration of shared principles, AP reported.
