Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said yes­ter­day that the chal­lenges fac­ing Latin Amer­i­ca in­clude fi­nance, health and gen­der and "we have to fight to over­come them. "There is a great di­ver­si­ty of cul­ture among us, but we can achieve greater strength," she added. She was speak­ing at her ar­rival at the Si­mon Bo­li­var In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, Venezuela, to at­tend the sum­mit es­tab­lish­ing the Com­mu­ni­ty of Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CELAC) in Cara­cas.

Af­ter be­ing re­ceived by Venezue­lan Vice Pres­i­dent Elias Jaua, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said cre­ation of CELAC was about forg­ing geo-po­lit­i­cal in­sti­tu­tion­al de­vel­op­ment for our coun­tries. She added: "We be­long to the south­ern hemi­sphere and we al­ways have looked to the north. It is time to re­al­ly look south to south and the great her­itage we share. "There is great di­ver­si­ty in cul­ture be­tween us but we can achieve greater force to be es­tab­lish­ing this uni­ty be­tween our peo­ples." A to­tal of 33 coun­tries are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the in­au­gu­ra­tion.