Senate of the Republic Commemorates 75th Anniversary of ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in Mexico

(Mexico City, June 17, 2026) Mexico's Senate of the Republic commemorated this Wednesday, June 17, 2026 the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Subregional Headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Mexico, in a special session that brought together authorities, representatives of international organizations, members of academia and civil society organizations to reflect on development challenges and opportunities in the region.

ECLAC's Subregional Headquarters in Mexico was established in June 1951 with the aim of analyzing the economic problems of Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. For more than seven decades, ECLAC in Mexico has accompanied governments, congresses, public institutions and social actors via the generation of applied knowledge, the development of innovative methodologies for analysis, and the formulation of public policy proposals adapted to the region's realities. Its work has contributed to strengthening institutional capacities and building regulatory frameworks aimed at guaranteeing rights and promoting more inclusive societies.

The President of the Senate, Laura Itzel Castillo, stressed that this Subregional Headquarters has been critical for technical cooperation, regional integration and for designing public policies geared towards development. "ECLAC has also been one of the most important schools of Latin American thought. Its original contributions led us to understand that development requires critical analysis of inequality, technological dependence and the role of the State in building shared prosperity," she indicated.

ECLAC's Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, explained that the Commission is a network-based institution with multiple communities of national and international civil servants deeply committed to the development of Latin America and the Caribbean.

"Our proposal, at its heart, continues to have an ECLAC identity: embracing collective action, trusting in pragmatic dialogue and the pursuit of agreements, analyzing our environment, and developing strategies tailored to our specific realities. That is why we are here, and why we will continue to be here. The Subregional Headquarters in Mexico has served as an example of how proximity and a deep understanding of local realities strengthen ECLAC's ability to respond and consolidate its role as a regional leader," the senior United Nations official emphasized.

These remarks were followed by a high-level seminar held at the Senate entitled "Transformations for Development," which featured two keynote lectures: ECLAC's Executive Secretary delivered one entitled "Rethinking Development for a Ruptured World," while the Rector of UNAM, Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas, spoke on "Latin American Structuralism from ECLAC's Perspective." Both presentations were commented upon by prominent academics from UNAM, El Colegio de México and Tecnológico de Monterrey, as well as representatives from Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), the Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the Mexican Senate, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), and ECLAC.

In his presentation, ECLAC's Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, indicated that Latin American and Caribbean countries today face a more fragmented world, which is not only competitive in the traditional sense of the word but is rife with geopolitical rivalries, governed less by rules and more by power relations. It is, therefore, a more unpredictable, uncertain world with more risks.

"The future of the region will not be built by just reacting to these ruptures. It will be built by expanding our scopes for action, strengthening our capabilities and making a collective endeavor of development. That is my invitation to you: look at Latin America and the Caribbean with realism, but also with a sense of possibility; recognize its vulnerabilities, but act based on its potential; understand the restrictions, but build the capacities to overcome them," he said. "We don't have control over the era in which we are living, but we can decide how to address it."

Meanwhile, the Rector of UNAM stated that this commemoration of the 75thanniversary of ECLAC's Subregional Headquarters in Mexico is an occasion that calls for celebration but also for critical reflection about the significance of this long intellectual trajectory, at a time of profound transformation in the world order.

"The world in which this Headquarters was founded in 1951 was a post-war world that embraced multilateralism to define a new world order, founded institutions to regulate monetary and financial crises, finance development and redefine the rules of international trade, and in which Latin America sought to transform the growth of the war years into a sustained process of industrialization and improvement in its population's living conditions. In contrast, the world in which we are commemorating this anniversary is one of geopolitical fragmentation, attacks on democracy, abandonment of multilateralism, rapid technological transition, and a deep questioning of the assumptions on which the economic order was built in the mid-20th century," he asserted.

Lomelí noted that at both times - separated by three-quarters of a century - the central question that has inspired ECLAC's work is the same: under what conditions can Latin America turn economic growth into development? What kind of productive, institutional and social transformation is needed for expanded economic activity to translate into widespread well-being, inequality reduction and strengthened regional capacity to integrate into the global economy? "Answering these questions has been the leitmotif of Latin American structuralist thought for seven decades," he underscored.

ECLAC's Subregional Headquarters in Mexico, along with the network of professionals who make up the larger ECLAC family - and in close coordination with the Headquarters in Santiago, Chile - will continue to be a center for Latin Americanist economic thought, maintaining its analyses and proposals grounded in a renewed structuralist approach tailored to today's needs, and promoting international and regional cooperation for this decade and those to come.

ECLAC thanks all the individuals and institutions that have contributed to this journey and reaffirms its resolve to continue working together with Mexico and the other countries of the region to promote development with equality, sustainability and well-being for all people.

ABOUT ECLAC'S SUBREGIONAL HEADQUARTERS IN MEXICO

In June 1951, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that had gathered at ECLAC's fourth session, held in Mexico, agreed to create ECLAC's Subregional Headquarters in Mexico to work with the host country and Central American countries, as well as Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Since then, this Headquarters has generated knowledge about economic and social development and specialized public policy proposals for the countries it serves.

Learn more about the history of ECLAC's Subregional Headquarters in Mexico in the document "75 years of ECLAC's Subregional Headquarters in Mexico: History, Achievements and Challenges": https://bit.ly/CEPALMEX-2026-11S