The leftist leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia railed against the United States Friday in Havana, days ahead of the Summit of the Américas in Los Angeles, whose invitation list has overshadowed the agenda.
By International Business Times -Rigoberto Diaz and Carlos Batista
May 27, 2022
US President Joe Biden has described the June 6-10 summit, being held in the United States for only the second time, as an opportunity to champion democracy over authoritarianism and has not invited the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who has said he will “under no circumstances” go to Los Angeles, held an alternative summit of sorts in Havana.
Entering the Palace of the Revolution, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called the gathering “a firm, forceful and absolute rejection of the imperial vision that seeks to exclude peoples from the Americas.”
Bolivian President Luis Arce said of the Los Angeles gathering: “If they want to have a meeting among friends, let them do it, but don’t call it the Summit of the Americas.”
The talks in Havana were part of the ALBA grouping, set up in 2004 by Maduro’s late predecessor Hugo Chávez and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro to counter a US proposal for a pan-American free trade area.
The bloc’s grievances received a boost from the leader of Latin América’s second most populous nation, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who said he would not travel to Los Angeles unless all nations were invited.
On a visit to Havana on May 8, the leftist Mexican leader said it should be for “each country to decide freely if they will attend.”
In Havana, Maduro hailed López Obrador for “standing up for the entire continent’s truth, morals and dignity.”
Mexico may still send its foreign minister to LA, but the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras and the 14-nation bloc of Caribbean states have also put their attendance in doubt.
Testifying to a US Senate committee on Thursday, summit coordinator Kevin O’Reilly said the United States would “absolutely not” invite representatives from the government of Maduro, whom Washington considers illegitimate following a widely criticized 2018 election.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega – who did not travel to Havana – has also been accused of rising authoritarianism, with his main rival in last year’s elections arrested and later sentenced to eight years in prison for alleged financial crimes.
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