Nicolás Maduro assured on Tuesday that the voice of the country, as well as those of Cuba and Nicaragua, will be present at the IX Summit of the Americas, which will be held between June 4 and 10 in Los Angeles (United States), at the that none of the three Latin American governments has been invited.
“But I tell you, at this point, whatever you do in Washington, the voice of Venezuela, the voice of Cuba and the voice of Nicaragua will reach Los Angeles in the great protests of the people and our voice will be in that room. I say so, our voice will be present at the Los Angeles summit, whatever the United States government says, we will be there with our truth,” Maduro said in a televised act.
The regional controversy started, at the end of April, with the denunciation by the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, that the United States, host of the summit, was excluding his country from the preparations.
Less than two weeks before the meeting, Washington has not cleared up the question of whether it will invite these countries and has not published the final list of participants, despite having already begun to send the invitations.
In this regard, the Venezuelan president assured, in a broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), who intends to exclude his people and those of Cuba and Nicaragua from the event “out of fear” and warned that they will be present.
“We have our tricks, I am not going to reveal any secrets, but what we will be, we will be,” he said. Madurowhile insisting that there will be “surprises.”
«They have not been able to exclude us nor will they be able to exclude us, there will be surprises. I’m buying my ticket (…) I’m going to arrive on foot in a big march to Los Angeles, “she said with a laugh.
Maduro recalled that more than 25 governments have protested once morest the attempt to exclude them and assured that the meeting became the summit of the protest once morest imperialist exclusion.
In this regard, he thanked the government leaders who have spoken out once morest what he called an act of discrimination and exclusion.
“They intend to exclude us because they are afraid of our anti-imperialist voice, they are afraid of the voice of the Bolivarians, they do not want the voice of Bolívar and Chávez to reach that meeting,” he insisted.
Among the leaders who have expressed their support for Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who announced, days following visiting Havana, that he would not attend the Summit if there were excluded. But he left the door open for his chancellor to represent him.
The presidents of Bolivia and Guatemala, Luis Arce and Alejandro Gianmattei, respectively, also stated that they would not attend the meeting if all the countries of the continent were not invited.
Other Latin American countries —such as Chile, Argentina, Panama and Honduras— showed their rejection of exclusion, but indicated that they would participate.
Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay and Paraguay have confirmed their attendance. Brazil, for its part, has not yet made public whether it will attend, although this has nothing to do with those excluded.
