In Protest Against Exclusion of Venezuela, Cuba & Nicaragua, President Petro Will Not Attend Summit of the Americas
Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Photo: EFE.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced that he will not participate in the 10th Summit of the Americas, to be held in the Dominican Republic, in protest against the United States’ actions in the Caribbean and the exclusion of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. “Dialogue does not begin with exclusions,” he wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, October 15. Thus he joins Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, who announced a similar decision on Monday.
President Petro further stated that he had proposed a meeting between CELAC and the United States to promote economic integration across the continent but that his initiative was ignored.
“I proposed a CELAC-US meeting to the United States to review the economic integration of a Greater America,” President Petro wrote. “There was no response, and what we have instead is an aggression in the Caribbean, in a region that had been established as a zone of peace. I will not attend the Summit of the Americas. Dialogue does not begin with exclusions.”
President Petro emphasized that Latin America’s future must focus on internal cooperation and economic independence, not on aligning with the interests of global powers. “Latin America must integrate through concrete projects,” he said, mentioning Colombia’s proposal on clean energy, Mexico’s on medicine production, and Brazil’s on Amazonian integration.
On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that she will not attend the Summit of the Americas scheduled for December 4-5. She criticized the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, saying, “we do not agree with excluding any country.”
In response to the exlusionary policy of the United States and the lackey government of the Dominican Republic, social movements and solidarity organizations have convened a Peoples’ Summit of the Americas, which will take place during December 4-6 in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.
The coordinator of the Dominican Solidarity with Cuba Campaign, Roberto Payano, condemned the exclusion, highlighting that it represents a “capitulation of the [Dominican] government to the brutal unilateral pressures of the United States.” He also accused Washington of attempting to revive the Monroe Doctrine and jeopardize the region’s stability.
“In response to a summit built on exclusion and imposition, we must raise the banner of Latin American unity,” Payano said, adding that the alternative gathering will be an act of solidarity and resistance with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
The People’s Summit of the Americas will reaffirm the principles of cooperation, sovereignty, and mutual respect, in contrast to the official Summit of the Americas’ politicized and selective approach.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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