ALBA: Cuba celebrates the Summit of the Americas agenda with an alternative meeting | international

The controversial Summit of the Americas, which was held by the administration of US President Joe Biden, paradoxically, began not in Los Angeles, but in Havana. Ten days before the Western Hemisphere meeting organized by Washington, the Cuban capital hosted on Friday Presidential meeting of the ten countries that make up ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America). They became spokespersons for compensating the countries the United States had tried to exclude from the meeting because of their democratic deficits – Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua – they finally doubled down on Washington’s diplomatic arm by setting the agenda for the secret meeting.

No one is talking anymore about the contents that were to be discussed at the Summit of the Americas. The question has been reduced roughly to whether it should be inclusive, accepting countries intolerant of the United States and considered dictatorships, or accepting exceptions as normal, as they have been hitherto. The protest of many governments, including important allies of Washington, such as Mexico or Argentinaturned into a nightmare for the apex host that was meant to be an opportunity Weight gain and impact in the area.

The one who said it so clearly in Havana was the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro: a large part of Latin America, with various rhetoric and degrees, has rebelled against the United States, and this must be celebrated. “The voice of the continent resonates,” Maduro asserted triumphantly, noting that “raising the flags of dignity for Latin America and the Caribbean is worth striving for for years.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reiterated on Friday that, If there are exceptions, the appointment will not attend. The Bolivian President, Luis Ars, gave the same opinion in Havana: “The arbitrary decision of the United States to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela on the pretext that their governments do not respect the democratic charter, has succeeded only in weakening the institutions from the forum.” Maduro also thanked Argentine President Alberto Fernandez for the veto.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who declined to participate in the meeting on Wednesday despite being finally invited, said in his inaugural address that the United States was “neither politically nor morally” with the power to decide who should be invited and who should not. The president accused Washington of “undemocratic” practices of not being able to guarantee a “pluralistic space” in the hemisphere and “disrespecting differences”.

The Final Declaration of the ALBA Summit (an organization founded by the late Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in 2004, and currently made up of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Granada, San Cristobal, Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Saint Lucia) was known to be an anti-nationalist party. What’s happened. The document, first of all, condemns “the claims of imperialist hegemony over the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to keep the region divided according to their dominant interests.”

Then ALBA countries rejected the “arbitrary, ideological and politically motivated exclusion” of Havana, Managua and Caracas from the so-called Summit of the Americas, which will take place from June 6-10 in Los Angeles, USA. This “unilateral decision” constitutes, in his opinion, “a serious historical setback in relations with the Western Hemisphere that harms the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.” For this reason, they support “the right of all countries of the continent to be invited and participate in the said event on an equal footing,” stressing that the host country “has no right to impose exceptions or conditions that violate its sovereignty and independence.”

In a key paragraph, “They support and appreciate the courageous and dignified stand taken by governments, social actors, organizations and fraternal peoples of our continent, Who strongly and in various ways rejected the exceptions from the Los Angeles meetingFew believed this in the United States and abroad Veto power for Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela It could provoke a backlash like that seen that has so marred the Summit of the Americas, turning those who wanted to be excluded into the heroes of an unprecedented confrontation with Washington.

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