Editor’s note: Amidst the photo ops and handshakes, two principled speeches stood out at the recently concluded 9th Summit of the Americas this year. One would have hoped that more regional leaders would have boycotted the event, given the outrageous decision of the Biden Administration to not invite the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. In fact, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines unsuccessfully urged CARICOM leaders “not to attend”; many did, but he was joined in his decision to stay away by the President of Mexico as well as by leaders of several other countries including Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Bolivia.
In his remarks at the summit, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, President of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) noted that “we definitely would have wanted another Summit of the Americas” as “all of us who should have been present were not present in this environment that is so propitious for debate.” He went on to pointedly note that “being the host country of the summit does not grant the ability to impose a ‘right of admission’ on the member countries of the continent. Dialogue in diversity is the best instrument to promote democracy, modernization and the fight against inequality.” Fernandez also spoke forcefully about the effect of ongoing sanctions on the people of Cuba and Venezuela: “Latin America and the Caribbean look with pain at the suffering that brother nations endure. Cuba withstands a blockade of more than six decades imposed during the Cold War years and Venezuela tolerates another one while a pandemic that devastates humanity sweeps away millions of lives with it.”
