Trudeau and Boric agree that exclusion is not the way

Reuters and AFP

Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, June 7, 2022, p. 4

Ottawa. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, yesterday marked distance from the United States in his policy towards Cuba, while Chilean President Gabriel Boric rejected the exclusion of the island, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the ninth Summit of the Americas, a decision that considered as a mistake.

Regarding Cuba, we have always been there to support and defend human rights. We have also pushed for greater democracy. Canada has always had a different position on Cuba than the United StatesTrudeau said during a joint news conference with Gabriel Boric.

The Chilean president said: we feel we have the right to express here (in Canada), in the United States or wherever, that exclusion is not the way to go, that it has not given results historically and when the United States tries to exclude certain countries, ultimately what it does is reinforce the position they have.

Boric added that he will present this problem at the regional meeting without for a moment stopping raising your voice for human rightsand said that It cannot be that in our American continent the only thing that is talked about outside is our disagreements regarding two and three countries. We have many more issues in common.

After the meeting, the two leaders traveled together to Los Angeles, California, to participate in the Summit of the Americas.

For now, the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, canceled his trip to Los Angeles after testing positive for covid-19, although his foreign minister Francisco Bustillo keeps his trip going, according to local media.

In addition, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will not attend the meeting with the leaders of Bolivia, Luis Arce, and Honduras, Xiomara Castro, rejecting the exclusions.

In total, 33 representatives of the countries of the hemisphere were invited, and around 23 heads of state confirmed their attendance, among them the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, who said that he would attend since his country holds the presidency of the Community of Latin American States and from the Caribbean; the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, the Colombian Iván Duque, the Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso, the Panamanian Laurentino Cortizo, the Peruvian Pedro Castillo and the Paraguayan Mario Abdó.

At press time, Belize, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago had announced their participation from the Caribbean Community.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose government has been criticized by the United States, had not confirmed his attendance at press time, and Guatemalan Alejandro Giammattei, also questioned by Washington, cited scheduling problems.