Photo: ROB LANKEY/DPA/ABACA/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
The United States will not invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the Summit of the Americas in June in Los Angeles, it stated this Monday (.05.2022) the head of US diplomacy for the region Brian Nichols.
“At a key moment in our hemisphere, a moment when we are facing many challenges for democracy and the countries (…) Cuba, Nicaragua and the regime of (Nicolás) Maduro do not respect the Democratic Charter of the Americas and therefore I do not expect their presence,” Nichols declared, in an interview with the string NTN24.
To the question of If Washington will invite the Cuban government, which has attended the 2015 summit in Panama, Nichols replied: “No.” “It is a decision of the president (Joe Biden) but I think it has been very clear that (…) countries that do not respect democracy by their actions will not receive invitations,” he added.
Last week, Cuba denounced that the United States excluded it from the preparations for the summit and described as a “historic setback” of the Biden government.
“Wave of oppression”61615255
These three countries are added to the list of those excluded in the region for the Summit for Democracy that was held in December in Washington, along with Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti .
Relations between the United States and Cuba have become even more tense since what Washington describes as a “wave of oppression” after the protests in July 2021 on the island, which resulted in one death, dozens of injuries and 1.395 detained according to the last count of the NGO based in Miami, Cubalex.
Cuba blames the United States for being behind these protests, the largest since the triumph of the revolution in 1959.
On the other hand, the Biden government does not recognize the presidents of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, for considering that they were elected in fraudulent elections.
The United States and dozens of countries consider Juan Guaidó interim president of Venezuela since the re-election of the socialist president in 2018.
mg (afp, efe, NTN24)