The heads of government of the Caricom will meet this Sunday to decide for a third and possible last time whether or not they will attend the IX Summit of the Americas, after pressure from the United States to rule out the idea of a boycott.
The Caricom Secretariat has recommended its members to ignore any attempt by the administration of US President Joe Biden to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the event.
The controversy arises from the possibility that Biden invites the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Juan Guaidó, to the event, instead of President Nicolás Maduro.
“That must be a deception for Caricom, as well as for the rest of the Latin American countries,” emphasizes an internal document to be discussed prepared by analysts on the eve of the meeting to be held this Sunday.
Caricom and the Summit of the Americas
The United States will organize the summit, which will be held between June 6 and 10 in Los Angeles, and recognizes Guaidó as president of Venezuela, a decision opposed to that of Caricom.
The United States Department of State confirmed, several days ago, that it ruled out inviting Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the next Summit of the Americas, considering that they “do not respect” democracy.
Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have already announced that they do not accept the invitation for Guaidó and leave out President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba.
The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, stressed on the matter that he does not believe in the policy of isolating Cuba and Venezuela, in addition to making it clear that his country does not recognize Guaidó as president of the Bolivarian country.
Exclusion of Cuba
The Caricom discussion document admits that the exclusion of Cuba from the summit “presents a major problem”, despite the fact that the heads of government of the Caribbean political organization must attend the event.
“Caricom leaders remain firm in their support for the inclusion of Cuba in the summit, although they recognize that Cuba will reject the invitation, since the Biden Administration has done very little to reverse the damage caused in relations between the two countries caused by the Trump Administration,” the text says.
“Caricom members want to defend their own interests in a hemisphere where the United States is still a hegemon and form an alliance with the country that the region supports to win more in terms of trade, investment and cooperation,” he adds.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, said he did not understand that Guaidó represents Venezuela at the IX Summit of the Americas.
Caricom leaders have reiterated in the past their position of non-interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela and said they are prepared to mediate in the process that leads to a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
USA
This will be the first time that the United States has hosted the Summit of the Americas, which is held every three to four years, since the original edition in Miami in 1994.
So far, eight ordinary summits have been held: Miami (1994), Santiago de Chile (1998), Québec (Canada, 2001), Mar del Plata (Argentina, 2005), Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago, 2009) , Cartagena de Indias (Colombia, 2012), Panama (2015) and Lima (Peru, 2018).