The leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela will not be invited to the Americas Summit in the United States in June, a senior State Department official said Wednesday.
“They probably won’t be there,” Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols told a group of reporters, noting that the summit will focus on democratic governments in the western hemisphere.
The United States called it “unlikely” that Cuba, Nicaragua and the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro were involved.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez this week condemned Washington’s “decision to withdraw Cuba from preparations for the IX ban the Summit of the Americas,” and urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “tell honestly whether Cuba will attend the IX Summit of the Americas,” which will be held in the city of Los Angeles, California.
When asked about this, a State Department spokesman told Radio Televisión Martí, “The White House has not issued any invitations[to the summit]at this time.”
In the conference with the journalists, Nichols did not specify whether they would invite opposition figure Juan Guaidó, whom Washington still recognizes as the country’s interim president, limiting himself to pointing out that the US has “great respect” for Guaidó’s internal government to have.
“The illegitimate Cuban communist regime has no right to attend the Summit of the Americas,” said Republican Senator Rick Scott Tuesday, who wrote a letter asking President Joe Biden to “opt out Díaz-Canel and his thugs” from the big event.
the ninth Aimed at “building a sustainable, resilient, and just future,” Summit of the Americas will focus on growing migration flows in the region, but will also address the climate crisis, the transition to clean energy and equitable economic growth, and the role of Civil society and the independent media, according to the White House.