Cuba hails Latin America summit ‘rebellion’ against US

Cuba was the only nation in the Americas not invited to the summit in Cartagena

BBC:

Cuba has hailed what it says was a rebellion by Latin American and Caribbean nations against US dominance at the Summit of the Americas.

Cuba said US President Barack Obama had been forced to use an “imperial veto” to stop the summit calling for an end to the US embargo against it.

The summit in Colombia last weekend ended without a final declaration.

There were disagreements over the embargo and whether Cuba should be allowed to attend the next meeting.

The US and Canada opposed demands by the Latin American nations for Cuba to be invited to the next Summit of the Americas in Panama in 2015.

President Obama said that, unlike the other participants, Cuba “has not yet moved to democracy, has not yet observed basic human rights.”

‘Growing chasm’

But in a statement, Cuba’s communist government said Mr Obama was “totally isolated” and in no position to lecture it about democracy.

“We Cubans will take care of Cuba,” it said.

It added there was a “growing chasm” between North America and the rest of the hemisphere, and called the Organisation of American States (OAS) an “unburied corpse”.

Cuba was excluded from participation in the OAS – which runs the Americas summits – 50 years ago.

But there was intense pressure from mainly left-wing Latin American countries for it to be invited.

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador did not attend the meeting in Cartagena in protest at Cuba’s exclusion, and several others said they would not participate in the next summit unless Cuba was invited.

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