The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, assured that “it was a mistake” the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas this year. «We feel entitled to express, here, in the United States or wherever, that exclusion is not the way»
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, urged this Monday, on the opening day of the IX Summit of the Americas, to end the “poverty, discrimination and violence” that punish the continent .
“We have to reverse the conditions of poverty, discrimination and violence that affect America,” Almagro said.
In this sense, he denounced that there is “a lot of discrimination against the Afro population, LGTBi, women” and “also for reasons of sexual orientation.”
“It is the most unequal continent, the most violent, the most dangerous for journalists,” he said.
For this reason, he called for “more institutional and international support” as well as “working for better education”, with the intention of putting an end to these scourges that undermine the development of the continent.
Likewise, Almagro highlighted the role of non-governmental organizations, whose participants will finalize a series of proposals that they will present this week to regional leaders.
The words of the international official come during the IX Civil Society Forum, which marks the beginning of the hemispheric event.
Also present at this opening ceremony were the OAS Secretary for Hemispheric Affairs, James Lambert; the director of the Summits of the Americas Secretariat, María Celina Conte; and the main person in charge of the US Department of State for Latin America, Brian Nichols, who highlighted his commitment to “a free civil society.”
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Absences at the Summit
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador The Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, shook the region and domestic politics by confirming this Monday, after weeks of uncertainty, that he will not attend the Summit of the Americas due to the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The president will be the only one of the invited heads of state who will not attend the meeting for political reasons (Guatemalan Alejandro Giammattei will be absent due to “exclusively agenda issues”), which is the highest meeting forum on the continent.
While the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, had previously announced that she would not attend the meeting.
For his part, the Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, reported that he will not attend the Summit of the Americas, after testing positive for covid-19.
A mistake
On the other hand, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, assured this Monday that the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from this year’s Summit of the Americas “was a mistake.”
The Chilean president made the remarks at a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during his visit to Ottawa, before traveling to Los Angeles.
“Nobody is going to save himself. We have to unite to have better development of our nations. We feel entitled to express, here in the United States or wherever, that exclusion is not the way. That has not given results historically. And when the US tries to exclude certain countries, ultimately what it does is reinforce the position they have in their own places. We believe that this is a mistake, and we are going to say so at the summit,” Boric added.
With information from Eph/ Infobae
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