Statement of the Cuban Revolutionary Government
HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 6 (ACN) The United States government, abusing the privilege granted by its status as host country, decided in advance to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the 9th Summit of the Americas, to be held in the city of Los Angeles this June. It refused to meet the just demands of numerous governments to change this discriminatory and unacceptable position.
There is not a single reason that justifies the undemocratic and arbitrary exclusion of any country in the hemisphere from this continental event. This is something that the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean have been warning about since the 6th Summit held in Cartagena de Indias in 2012.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez announced on May 25 that he would not attend. It was a firm decision by Cuba if all the countries of the hemisphere were not invited on an equal basis.
Amidst arrogance, fear of hearing uncomfortable truths, the determination to prevent the meeting from deliberating on the most urgent and complex issues of the hemisphere, and the contradictions of its own weak and polarized political system, the U.S. government opted once again for exclusion as a resource to try to achieve an event without concrete contributions, but profitable for the image of imperialism.
We are aware of the extensive high-level negotiations carried out by the United States with governments in the region to stop many from absenting themselves from the event if all were not invited. These included immoral pressures, blackmail, threats and dirty tricks of deception. These are standard practices of imperialism that reflect its traditional contempt for our countries. They deserve the most energetic rejection.
Cuba appreciates and respects the dignified, courageous and legitimate position of numerous governments in defense of the participation of all, under equal conditions.
The leadership of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador deserves special recognition. We highlight the clear and early attitude of CARICOM member countries against exclusions, as well as the firm stance of Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora and Honduran President Xiomara Castro. Argentina’s position as president of CELAC expresses the majority opinion of the region against a selective summit, as many South and Central American governments have expressed in public and in private.
This genuine and spontaneous solidarity, in the face of the discriminatory action of the United States against countries in the region, reflects the feelings of the people of Our America. The United States has underestimated the support for Cuba in the region, while trying to impose its policy of hostility towards Cuba, unilaterally and universally rejected, as if it were a consensual position in the hemisphere, but the debate on the invitation process proved the opposite.
The 21st ALBA Summit, held in Havana on May 27, marked unequivocally the repudiation of exclusions and discriminatory and selective treatment.
Exclusions of this nature confirm that the United States conceived and uses this high-level dialogue mechanism as an instrument of its hegemonic system in the hemisphere, in the style of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR by its Spanish acronym) and other entities conceived in the 20th century to restrict independence, limit the sovereignty of the nations of the region and impede the aspirations of Latin American and Caribbean unity and integration.
They are part of the effort to apply the Monroe Doctrine and promote exclusion as a weapon of division, based on clear political, electoral and domination interests.
It is not possible to speak of “The Americas” without including all the countries that make up the hemisphere. What our region demands is cooperation, not exclusion; solidarity, not meanness; respect, not arrogance; sovereignty and self-determination, not subordination.
It is known in advance that the proposals to be adopted in Los Angeles are divorced from the real problems of the region and are in fact useless and omissive, beyond the effort to grant the OAS a supranational prerogative to decide on the legitimacy or otherwise of electoral processes and the imposition on Latin American and Caribbean governments of repressive, discriminatory and exclusionary behavior against migrants.
We know that the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean, as in the past, will resound in those days in Los Angeles, with the admirable and vertical absence of fundamental leaders who have enormous political and moral authority and recognition from their people and the world.
We also have full confidence that the leaders of the region who decide to go, will know how to make a dignified case that the United States cannot treat our nations the way it did during the 20th century.
Cuba supports genuine efforts to foster integration based on civilized coexistence, peace, respect for diversity and solidarity throughout the hemisphere. It has a widely recognized endorsement to support and contribute unreservedly to any legitimate proposal for real and concrete solutions to the most pressing problems suffered by our peoples. The reality that we are facing today is far from those desires.
Havana, June 6, 2022.
