President Daniel Ortega assured that he is not interested in participating in the IX Summit of the Americas, which will be held in June in Los Angeles, United States, after the Joe Biden government announced that anti-democratic countries, referring to Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba would not be invited.
“From here-Managua-I say to the Yankee: forget it! We are not interested in being at that Summit. We are not interested in going to that Summit. It is going to fill up, we already know what…”, expressed an euphoric Ortega, before part of his Cabinet, the head of the Army, Julio César Avilés; the police chief, Francisco Díaz; the president of the National Assembly, Gustavo Porras; the head of the Ministry of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel; Vice President Rosario Murillo and members of the Sandinista Youth while applauding him.
In the commemorative act of the 127th anniversary of the birth of Augusto C. Sandino held at the Olof Palme Convention Center, Ortega said that the Summit “does not exalt anyone, rather, it dirty, muddy. We Latin Americans have to defend ourselves so that they respect us,” he said. He added that “the show that the Yankee rulers are giving with this famous Summit is a shame.”
The US has not sent the invitations to the governments to attend the Summit to be held in Los Angeles, California from June 6 to 10, despite the fact that top officials of the Biden Administration they have said that those who do not respect democracy are not likely to be invited.
The caudillo’s statements come after weeks that countries such as Mexico, Chile and Bolivia expressed their opinions in favor of non-exclusion at the Summit, where the discussion is expected to focus on migration, supply chains and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, explained the former foreign minister of Mexico, Jorge Castañeda, in a recent interview in Tonight.
Mexico was the first country to react to the possibility that Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela were not invited to the Summit. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador conditioned his participation in the continental meeting to the inclusion of the three countries.
The shadow that the Mexican president has created over attendance at the Summit of the Americas remained this Wednesday, May 18, after his meeting with Christopher Dodd, special adviser to the White House for said event.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs said of the “expectation” of a response from the Joe Biden government to López Obrador’s request to invite all countries, estimating that he could respond in the “next few hours or days.”
Ortega did not forget to recognize the work that the Mexican president has carried out in relation to the Summit, although he did not say so explicitly: “We understand the concerns, the attitudes of the governments of Latin American presidents, who have been questioning and we recognize, with a courageous attitude, really in these circumstances, which have questioned the fact that the Yankees are marginalizing Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua,” he said.
“Meetings to conspire” and strengthen CELAC
Ortega questioned that the Latin American countries submit to the United States, as host of the Summit, where he assured that they conspire. “It seems that we are all colonies of the Yankee empire, it seems that there is a king there and that the king decides when we meet and when we don’t meet. That the king decides who he invites and who he does not invite to his conspiracies because they are meetings to conspire against the Latin American and Caribbean peoples themselves, ”he said.
He also urged the Latin American and Caribbean governments to make themselves respected and strengthen the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which he considers has become “a meeting point for Latin America and the Caribbean.”
“We cannot be asking the Yankee or begging him that we want to go to his Summit, no, his Summit does not stimulate us,” he said.
“What CELAC should say to the Yankee government: you stay there with your Summit and we, as CELAC, invite you to meet with us, but you are not going to decide who is going to be at that meeting. That was decided by us, who are members of CELAC”, he remarked.
He insisted that CELAC is a “powerful instrument” through which they can meet with other powers such as China, Russia, India, and the European Union itself, the US, and Canada.
On May 2, the pro tempore presidency of CELAC, which Argentina holds in 2022, also asked to avoid “exclusions” at the Summit of the Americas.
“As Pro Tempore Presidency of CELAC, we urge the organizers of the Summit to avoid exclusions that prevent all the voices of the hemisphere from dialoguing and being heard. United we are stronger,” the agency said on its official Twitter account.
For Argentina, the Summit of the Americas represents “a great opportunity to build a meeting space in which all the countries of the hemisphere participate in an open and inclusive manner, under the unifying objective of concerting joint actions,” they argued.
