Wednesday, June 08, 2022

Biden’s Summit of the Americas Is Unfruitful - Evo Morales

Bolivia's Former President denounced the exclusion of Latin American countries from the Summit of the Americas. Jun. 7, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@ejutvPrevious
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Published 7 June 2022
by teleSUR/MS

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales said that the IX Summit of the Americas was "stillborn" due to the decision of the Biden Administration not to invite everyone to the meeting.

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"The latest version of the misnamed Summit of the Americas is born dead by the absence of several brother presidents who reject the arbitrary and unilateral exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua by the United States," Morales posted on his Twitter account Tuesday.

On the other hand, the Andean leader has praised the decision of some presidents of the region not to attend the summit, which began on Monday in Los Angeles. According to international media reports, at least eight presidents would not participate in the event in protest against the U.S. exclusion policy, among them Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the actual Bolivian President Luis Arce.

Morales has also accused the current U.S. administration of charging him with provoking division instead of promoting integration. This Tuesday, Joe Biden's Administration confirmed that it had not invited any political representative from Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela to the summit.


The IX Summit of the Americas, which takes place in the U.S., was stillborn. U.S. President Joe Biden dividing instead of integrating the region's countries denounced former Bolivian President Evo Morales (2006 -2019) on his official Twitter account.

After the United States, host of the IX Summit of the Americas, announced in early May its initial decision regarding the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, countries it accuses of not respecting "democracy," the Mexican president was the first to threaten to boycott the event, should any member be excluded. Other Latin American leaders joined López Obrador's step.

On Monday, López Obrador, in addition to refusing to attend the Summit of the Americas, blamed U.S. authorities for the failure of the meeting for having "a policy of closed-mindedness and not openness."Despite Biden's attempts to avoid the summit's failure, experts predict that the event could become an embarrassment for the U.S. president due to the high-impact boycott.

Regarding the agenda of the event, detractors and strategists have questioned what progress can be made at the summit - in which migration will be a central issue - if Mexico and some of the Central American countries are the source of most of the irregular migration to the U.S. are absent.



The Summit of the Americas Displays Imperialist Exclusion: Cuba



A woman protests against the exclusion of Cuba from the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, U.S., June 7, 2022.
| Photo: Twitter/ @PeoplesSummit22

Published 7 June 2022


Behind the U.S. decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas lies arrogance and fear of inconvenient truths being expressed.


From June 6 to 10, the 'Summit of the Americas' is taking place in Los Angeles, California. President Joe Biden's administration did not invite Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to this meeting, despite the fact that several Latin American leaders requested to avoid any form of ideological discrimination. The statement that Cuba issued regarding the Los Angeles meeting is reproduced below.

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The U.S. government, abusing its privilege of being the host country, decided at a very early stage to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the 9th Summit of the Americas to be held in the city of Los Angeles this month of June. It has refused to attend to the just claims of many governments to change that discriminatory and unacceptable stand.

There is no single reason that justifies the anti-democratic and arbitrary exclusion of any country of the hemisphere from this continental meeting, as warned by the Latin American and Caribbean nations at the 6th Summit held in Cartagena de Indias in 2012.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermúdez announced last May 25 that he would not attend the meeting. This was Cuba’s final decision if all countries of the hemisphere were not convened on an equal footing.

Arrogance, fear of inconvenient truths being voiced, determination to prevent the meeting from discussing the most pressing and complex issues in the hemisphere, and the contradictions of its own feeble and polarized political system are behind the U.S. decision to once again resort to exclusion in order to hold a meeting with no concrete contributions yet beneficial for imperialism’s image.



It is a well-known fact that the U.S. government has engaged in intensive high-level efforts with governments of the region seeking to reverse the intention of many of not attending the meeting unless all countries are invited. Such efforts included immoral pressure, blackmail, threats and dirty deceptive maneuvers. These are all common practices that reflect imperialism’s traditional disdain for our countries and deserve the strongest rejection.

Cuba appreciates and respects the honorable, brave and legitimate stand of many governments in defense of the full and equal participation of all countries.

The leadership of Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador deserves special recognition. We highlight the clear stand of CARICOM member countries from the outset against such exclusions, as well as the firm stance of Bolivian president Luis Arce Catacora and of the president of Honduras Xiomara Castro. The position of Argentine as chairman of CELAC expresses the majority view of the region against a selective Summit, as expressed, both publicly and in private, by many governments of South and Central America.

Such genuine and spontaneous solidarity in reaction to this U.S. discriminatory action against countries of the region reflects the sentiment of the peoples of Our America. The United States underestimated the support Cuba enjoys in the region, when it attempted to impose its unilateral and universally rejected hostile policy towards Cuba as a consensus regional position, however, the debate on the invitation process proved them wrong.

The 21st ALBA Summit held in Havana last May 27, showed the unequivocal repudiation of exclusions and discriminatory and selective treatment.

Such exclusions confirm that the United States conceived and uses this high-level dialogue mechanism as an instrument to further its hegemonic system in the hemisphere, just like the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) and other bodies established in the 20th century to curb independence, limit the sovereignty of nations in the region and thwart Latin American and Caribbean unity and integration aspirations.



They are part of the efforts to implement the Monroe Doctrine and promote exclusion as a dividing strategy for clear political, electoral and domination purposes. One cannot speak of “The Americas” without including all the countries of the hemisphere. Our region demands cooperation, not exclusion; solidarity, not meanness; respect, not arrogance; sovereignty and self-determination, not subordination.

It is known that the documents to be adopted at Los Angeles are completely divorced from the real problems facing the region and that beyond the effort to grant the OAS supranational prerogatives to decide upon the legitimacy of electoral processes and to compel Latin American and Caribbean governments to impose repressive, discriminatory and excluding actions against migrants, these documents are useless and vague.

We know that, like in the past, the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean will resound during those days in Los Angeles with the admirable and principled absence of relevant leaders who enjoy political and moral authority and the recognition of their people and the world.

We are also fully confident that the leaders of the region, who choose to attend, will argue with dignity that the United States cannot treat our peoples as they used to in the 20th century. Cuba supports the genuine efforts to promote integration throughout the hemisphere based on civilized coexistence, peace, respect for diversity and solidarity.

Cuba has a widely acknowledged record of unreserved support and contribution to all legitimate proposals for actual and concrete solutions to the most pressing problems faced by our peoples. The reality we are presented with today is far from such aspirations.

 

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Not to Be in the Americas Summit


Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, June, 2022. 
| Photo: Twitter/ @EmbaCuba_Pol
Published 3 June 2022
by teleSUR/MS


"I'm not going to go because I don't see what is to be gained from it... Our friendship has to be grounded in elemental respect and, truth be told, our U.S. friends have failed us," PM Golsalves said.


Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves confirmed that his country will not send representation to the Summit of the Americas to be held in Los Angeles from June 6 to 10.

"I'm not going to go because I don't see what is to be gained from it," Gonsalves said and explained his stance by recalling that U.S. President Joe Biden did not invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to the meeting, alleging that these countries are not "democratic." Washington's decision to exclude those nations has also been questioned by the governments of Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Argentina, Honduras, Chile, and Panama.

"Our friendship has to be grounded in elemental respect and, truth be told, our U.S. friends have failed us. Besides, they profoundly ignored that matter," stressed Gonsalves, who is one of the longest-serving leaders of the 15-member group. of The Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

He maintained that although the representatives of the countries of this intergovernmental organization will be present at the Los Angeles summit, they will show their disagreement with Washington's veto of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.


"You can't have a Summit of the Americas with just a few people. You must include everyone," Gonsalves insisted, adding that the hemisphere is slipping backwards in its search for consensus. In this regard, he recalled that Cuba was invited to the 2015 Summit of the Americas, where Barack Obama and Raul Castro very respectfully shared the same space.

"Why are we fighting these 20th century battles in the third decade of the 21st century? Our U.S. friends are wrong on this matter. I respect President Biden very much, but I cannot agree with his administration on this issue," Gonsalves said, adding that his country's relations with Washington remain at an excellent level as always.

Last week, CARICOM leaders held a virtual meeting to discuss their attendance at the U.S.-convened meeting in Los Angeles, but were unable to reach a consensus on the matter.


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