President Alberto Fernandez received strong support from his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicholas Madurofor his speech at the XI Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, where the Argentine president questioned the excussion of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua of the regional forum.
“Alberto Fernández has made a firm, clear, brave speech and put everything in its place”, defined Maduro, referring to the intervention made by the Argentine government as president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
On a visit to Iran, Nicolás Maduro stressed that Alberto Fernández “after protesting and rejecting the exclusion in front of (the president of the United States, Joe) Biden”, told him that “we have CELAC and invited him to participate without exclusion”. “put the icing on the cake”, said the head of state of Venezuela, during an interview with the Iranian propaganda channel HispanTV during his visit to Tehran.
In his speech at the regional summit, Alberto Fernández delivered a harsh speech when referring to the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaraguacountries that were not invited as a result of the denunciations for the violation of human rights.
“We definitely would have wanted another Summit of the Americas”, he expressed in his presentation at the multilateral forum created by the White House in 1994, whose mission was to unify the regional agenda after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion of the Soviet Union. “Being a host country does not grant the ability to impose a right of admission”, he added, to the decision not to invite Caribbean governments.
In this framework, Fernández invited the president of the United States, Joe Bidenat the next CELAC meeting, proposed to organize food production worldwide and demanded “restructure” the Organization of American States (OAS) “immediately removing those who drive it”, in reference to the secretary general of that organization, Louis Almagro.
In addition, he asked Joe Biden to reformulate his country’s policy towards Latin America and questioned the support of his predecessor Donald Trump for Mauricio Macri’s management. He also demanded a replacement at the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) what for “Without further delay, it has to return in its governance to Latin America and the Caribbean.”. That institution, he said, “historically was in Latin American hands,” mentioning that the presidency of that organization is currently in charge of the American Mauricio Claver Carone.
Alberto Fernández traveled to Los Angeles with a delegation made up of the first lady Fabiola Yañez, Serge Massa (head of the Chamber of Deputies), santiago cafiero (chancellor), Gabriela Cerruti (presidential spokesperson), Carla Vizzotti (Health), Vilma Ibarra (Legal and Technical secretary), Cecilia Nicolini (Climate Change Secretary), Julius Vitobello (Secretary General of the Presidency), Gustavo Beliz (Secretary for Strategic Affairs), Eduardo Valdes (Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of Deputies) and John Manuel Olmos (Chief of the Cabinet of advisers of the Casa Rosada.
The head of state’s visit to the United States came after a long diplomatic negotiation that included Joseph Biden, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and Nicolás Maduro. The exclusion of these three countries motivated the absence of López Obrador and the doubts of Fernández himself, who just a week ago confirmed his presence at the meeting. The President was reluctant to participate, but closed an understanding with all parties to guarantee their assistance and be “the voice” of the excluded countries.
A week ago, Nicolás Maduro himself expressed himself in those terms to support Alberto Fernández’s decision to participate in the summit. “It seems very good to me that he brings the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean to the meeting of the Americas (…) we are going to be well represented in the voice of President Alberto Fernández”pointed out then the Chavista leader.
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