At this time, Argentina is promoting the holding of a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in its capacity as president pro tempore of the regional bloc, which would take place in parallel with the IX Summit of the Americas, organized from June 6 to 10 in the US city of Los Angeles.
According to official sources confirmed to Télam, from the pro tempore presidency of Celac held by Argentina and with the support of Mexican President Manuel López Obrador, the holding of a meeting is being “pushed” that would allow the participation of countries that will not be invited to the Summit of the Americas such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which the United States as organizer has been excluding.
“The event will take place in parallel, without conflicting with the schedules of the Summit of the Americas and the spirit is to remain united as a block despite the differences”official sources said.
The novelty comes after several presidents of the region announced that they would not attend the meeting organized by Washington, after the White House announced its refusal to invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Alberto Fernández evaluates whether or not he will participate in the continental meeting
On Thursday, Argentina once again expressed its rejection of the US decision to exclude those countries and insisted on demanding that the conclave be held “without exclusions”, while President Alberto Fernández evaluates whether or not he will participate in the continental meeting.
With the organization of a CELAC summit itself, Fernández’s presence in Los Angeles would be confirmed.
During Thursday afternoon, Fernández received Christopher Dodd, special adviser to the Government of the United States for the IX Summit of the Americas, at the Casa Rosadaand to whom Joe Biden entrusted the task of ensuring the participation of the leaders of the three largest countries in the region (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico) at the Los Angeles summit.
“Argentina is going to work for the success of the Summit, with everyone included,” Fernández made it clear to the US envoy, to whom he did not confirm his presence at the summit.trusted from the Casa Rosada.
Fernández’s meeting with Dodd took place almost in parallel to the joint press conference that, in the Aztec capital, was offered this Friday by foreign ministers Santiago Cafiero and his counterpart from Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, where they exhibited the shared position between both nations and returned They demanded that the US, host of the summit, invite all countries, although they did not give specific definitions about the attendance or not of Fernández and the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in the continental conclave.
In the meeting at Government House, which took place in a friendly tone, Fernández spoke in his capacity as president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and told Dodd some comments on US foreign policy towards the region.
The United States has had “a difficult policy” with Donald Trump “and not much has changed with the new management regarding Latin America,” the Argentine president told Dodd and said he felt “ashamed” that “there is a 6-decade blockade against Cuba and 5 years to Venezuela and that it has not changed during the pandemic”, something he had said this morning when participating in the San Martín Palace of the III Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC).
Earlier, In the joint press conference offered in the Federal District, Cafiero and Ebrard once again marked the rejection of both countries to Washington’s determination to leave the governments of Caracas, Havana and Managua out of the continental forum and contrasted the attitude assumed by the US for this summit with the reality shown by CELAC, a mechanism that gives a “very valuable testimony” to the world in which , “without exclusions, all countries participate, are respected and all voices are heard” despite their “diversity”, according to Foreign Minister Cafiero.
