“Summit of Exclusion” Backfires on Biden
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 13, 2022
Jill Clark-Gollub, Alina Duarte, John Perry
“We would definitely have wanted a different Summit of the Americas. The silence of those absent challenges us. So that this does not happen again, I would like to state for the future that the fact of being the host country of the Summit does not grant the capacity to impose a ‘right of admission’ on the member countries of the continent.” President of Argentina and president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (CELAC), Alberto Fernández, at the Summit of the Americas, June 10, 2022, Los Angeles.
While hosting the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last week, the Biden administration sought to ostracize Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela by excluding them due to an alleged “lack of democratic space and human rights situations”. The resulting backlash caused these three countries to be the most discussed topic inside and outside the summit venue, as governments and social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean questioned whether the United States has the right or moral authority to pass judgment on the form of government each nation chooses. There was also plenty of skepticism about whether the Organization of American States (OAS), which has served as an instrument for advancing US hegemony in the region, really promotes the interests of the countries of the hemisphere. American scholar and activist Cornel West called this “a Malcolm X moment” in which the chickens are coming home to roost.[1] How did we get here?
Sanctioning itself out of business
The United States has targeted Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela for regime change, particularly through economic warfare in the form of unilateral coercive measures, commonly called sanctions. The U.S. now wields illegal sanctions on over a third of humanity living in 42 countries.[2] This blunt instrument seeks to push a nation’s population to revolt against its government, and sanctions were stepped up against Venezuela even during the time of pandemic. Though the tactic rarely succeeds, as the Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan people know, sanctions impact the poorest and most vulnerable citizens, particularly children, and cause thousands of deaths, in contravention of the Charters of the United Nations and the OAS. Consequently, sanctioned countries have been looking for ways around the U.S. dollar-dominated banking system. They were further pushed towards this when the U.S. undermined that very system by confiscating the gold and foreign reserves of Venezuela, then Afghanistan, and now Russia, as economist Michael Hudson has explained.[3]
The Biden administration should have realized by now that nations are no longer blindly following its orders to isolate countries it seeks to punish. For example, although corporate media depict a world united against Russia since February 24 of this year, a vast majority of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (in this case representing the majority of humanity), have refused to impose sanctions on Russia.[4] And when it comes to following Washington’s dictates on voting at the U.N., the picture is not as black and white as it is painted in the global North.
In the recent U.N. General Assembly vote about Russia’s membership in the Human Rights Council—a campaign led by the U.S.—although 92 countries followed Uncle Sam’s lead, 82 countries (including giants such as India, China, Brazil, and South Africa) either abstained or voted against the U.S. initiative. They clearly represent the overwhelming majority of humanity, and actually include 13 countries in the Americas.[5] Of course, the strongest precedent for rejection of U.S. policy has been 29 years of near-unanimous annual votes in the U.N. General Assembly demanding the lifting of the criminal U.S. blockade on Cuba.
People’s Summit, Los Angeles (credit photo, Alina Duarte).
Governments reject U.S. arrogance
The exclusion of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba from the Summit of the Americas caused several heads of state to boycott the summit, with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador leading the way by saying that the selective invitations showed “disrespect of countries’ sovereignty and independence”. The presidents of Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines followed his example, while El Salvador and Uruguay stayed away for their own reasons. During the June 6-10 gathering, diplomats representing several governments used the podium to denounce the exclusion of the three countries and called for an end to sanctions, especially the blockade on Cuba. They also questioned whether any country has the right to judge the democracy of other nations, and called for a revamping of the OAS as an inter-American institution. These remarks were echoed by the heads of state of Belize, Argentina, Chile, and several CARICOM countries. It is as if Washington were unaware that there has been a second emancipation underway in Latin America for more than two decades, and that U.S. efforts to turn back the clock on the advance of regional independence and the diversification of trading partners only serve to further undermine its waning influence in the region.
Immigration resolution, in the absence of key nations
News reports after the Summit ended questioned the validity of what is purported to be the Biden administration’s greatest accomplishment during the gathering—a declaration on migration —because it was discussed in the absence of the leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, the main sources of migration to the U.S. in recent years.[6] It is in any case an extremely paltry initiative that is unlikely to have any significant effect on numbers heading north.
The Summit took place during the trial of former Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez, who seized power after an OAS facilitated a coup d’etat in Bolivia in 2019, a fact not lost on many of the attendees, including the Bolivian representative. It was also raised by members of the audience during the Summit’s sessions, including Walter Smolarek who managed to speak from the floor for several minutes calling out OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro for his complicity in the massacres at Sacaba and Senkata during the Bolivian coup, and leaving Almagro almost speechless. Journalist Eugene Puryear pointed out the hypocrisy of the U.S. in shunning leaders it disagrees with while welcoming others, such as Ariel Henry of Haiti, who is accused by the judge who oversaw the case of murdering his predecessor.[7] President of Colombia, Iván Duque, whose government appears unable to stop the ongoing massacres and assassinations of human rights defenders, community leaders, and ex-combatants of the FARC, was also invited to the summit. And during the same session in which Secretary of State Blinken tried to present his administration as a worthy example of journalistic freedom, independent journalist Abby Martin challenged such a characterization by asking about U.S. client states implicated in murders of journalists, such as Palestinian-U.S. citizen Shireen Abu Akleh at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces.[8]
The Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans Biden did invite
The administration did extend invitations to some people from the scorned countries to participate in the Summit’s Civil Society Dialogue. In the case of Cuba, Norges Rodríguez, a telecommunications specialist, and Yotuel, the Cuban rapper living in Spain who became famous on July 11, 2021 for his song “Patria y Vida,” were present. The latter was the subject of an extensive exposé about his ties to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).[9] Mr. Rodríguez, for his part, bragged about bringing photos from last year’s protests in Cuba to be displayed at the Summit, and remarked that he was there to raise awareness about the threat posed by the three excluded governments.[10]
Some Nicaraguan opposition journalists affiliated with outlets that have received funding from the Chamorro Foundation, known to channel funding from USAID and the NED, were invited to the Summit of the Americas, including Lucía Pineda of “100% Noticias” and others from “Confidencial.”[11] Other invitees, such as Francisca Ramírez, who calls herself a “peasant leader” in the anti-canal movement, are part of the militant opposition to the government and is alleged to have been one of the architects of the violent roadblocks that paralyzed Nicaragua for three months during a bloody coup attempt in 2018.[12]
As for Venezuela, at least Washington realized that it was not prudent to impose its puppet Juan Guaidó on the summit, as he has become an embarrassment. But it did invite Guaidó’s former “ambassador” to the UK, Vanessa Neumann,[13] who is under investigation by the Venezuela’s Attorney General’s office for involvement in blocking Venezuela’s gold reserves held by the Bank of England.[14] She resigned as Juan Guaidó’s diplomatic envoy to the UK in December 2020, expressing concern that “The future of Guaidó’s leadership is not clear within the opposition.”[15]
Given that the Summit was supposed to work on topics such as “Health and Resilience,” “Our Green Future,” and “Accelerating the Transition to Clean Energy,” one might wonder whether inclusion of these civil society actors who benefit from U.S. funding is merely intended to give a veneer of legitimacy to the unilateral approaches of U.S. policy, while undermining true multilateralism. The fact that these individuals further Washington’s regime-change narratives is just icing on the cake.
The peoples of the Americas unite
Meanwhile, peace and justice activists held their own summits in Los Angeles (June 8 to 10) and in Tijuana, Mexico (June 10 to 12), calling for social justice, respect for national sovereignty, and international workers’ solidarity. Both Summits also called for the immediate release of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, who is being detained by U.S. authorities in violation of the Vienna Convention of 1961, setting a dangerous precedent for diplomatic missions around the world.[16]
The People’s Summit
People’s Summit Assembly, Los Angeles (credit photo, Alina Duarte).
The People’s Summit for Democracy in Los Angeles, endorsed by over 250 grassroots organizations and attended in-person and on-line by thousands, had strong participation from tenants’ rights groups that criticized the U.S. government for staging its event in the city with the highest homelessness rate in the country.[17] The three-day event included teach-ins and protests with speeches denouncing the U.S. government hypocrisy of claiming to be a champion of democracy and human rights abroad while racism, poverty, voter suppression and an inequitable justice system afflict millions at home. Despite the LAPD’s refusal to grant a permit, the event culminated in a protest outside the Biden administration’s summit, prominently displaying the flags of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The final declaration of this alternative summit states:
“This Summit we have built together has been a bridge across organizations, movements, regions, languages, and borders. We are creating bonds between us and unity across our different struggles. While the time we have spent together is coming to a close, we affirm the ongoing fight for a more just world and rededicate ourselves to it.”[18]
People’s Summit protest march heads for the Summit of the Americas (credit photo, Media Ninja)
The People’s Summit ended up generating a situation contrary to the wishes of the Biden administration. On Friday, April 10, thousands walked the streets of Los Angeles demanding an end to the blockade against Cuba, as well as an end to economic warfare against Venezuela and Nicaragua. A massive mobilization that contrasted with the vacuum at the Summit of the Americas inside and outside the venue.
The Workers’ Summit
Worker’s Summit brings banners to the U.S. border wall (credit photo: Teri Mattson)
The Workers’ Summit in Tijuana also had extensive social movement and union participation, including in-person attendance by grassroots leaders from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who were denied visas for the Los Angeles events. The peoples’ representatives of these three countries explained the advances their revolutionary societies have made in terms of housing for low-income people, socialized medicine, and free education through the highest level. There was a call to consolidate joint solidarity for the three countries against U.S. aggression, and to maintain ties among workers and social movements across national boundaries, in order to disseminate reliable information about what is happening in the different countries, take joint action when feasible, and learn from each other’s struggles. The final declaration of the workers summit states:
“We are witnessing a process of recolonization over the people. This is expressed in the excessive growth of racism, poverty, unemployment, job insecurity, environmental deterioration of territories, criminalization of migration, and gender and cultural violence. For this reason, we call upon the programmatic unity of the American continent’s workers, peasants, and progressive and popular forces to reflect, debate, and take concrete action to combat the labor and social violence applied to our peoples by the U.S. and Canadian governments.”[19]
The Summit proposes “To hold an annual meeting in Tijuana, Mexico, with the workers and social movements of the Americas to express solidarity with the peoples of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua and their revolutions to repudiate unilateral coercive measures against sovereign governments.”
Alison Bodine (Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice, Canada) urged delegates to build on the unity forged during the international encounter:
“When we leave the Workers Summit in Tijuana we need to solidify the unity that we have built over the last two days. We need to develop collaboration and teamwork with patience, confidence, and trust, to forge a united front that can work with consistency, cooperation and creativity to build a campaign that is strong enough to end imperialist attacks, sanctions and blockades against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.”
North South Solidarity
Both the People’s Summit and the Workers’ Summit, then, in response to the exclusive Summit of the Americas, established new bonds of solidarity and the promise of North-South ongoing collaboration.
It does indeed appear that the Biden administration’s effort to isolate the revolutionary governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela was not just a failure but a remarkable own-goal. Instead, North-South solidarity among the peoples of “Our America” was strengthened, despite their being excluded from the official summit. Cuban trade union leader Rosario Rodríguez Remos summed up the situation well when she said that, “The time has come for the dog to stop following the master.”
Jill Clark-Gollub, COHA Assistant Editor/Translator; Alina Duarte, COHA Senior Fellow; John Perry, COHA Senior Fellow
[Credit Main Photo: Teri Mattson, Workers’ Summit, Tijuana, at the U.S. Border Wall]
Sources
[1]
https://twitter.com/fiorellaisabelm/sta ... EmmOGlEtaw
[2]
https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sa ... countries/
[3]
https://mronline.org/2022/03/08/america ... on-russia/
[4]
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/16/ ... sanctions/
[5]
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115782; see also the outcome of the UN vote:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tw ... 3SCwzBkeCL
[6]
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/us/p ... ummit.html
[7]
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/08/americas ... index.html
[8]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIhHN3LJSao;
https://orinocotribune.com/journalists- ... hypocrisy/
[9]
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/07/25/cuba ... -catalyst/
[10]
www.diariolasamericas.com/mundo/cumbre- ... 250723/amp
[11]
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/06/01/cia- ... ing-media/; see also
https://100noticias.com.ni/politica/115 ... e-america/
[12] [Sefton, S. (2020) Nicaragua 2018: uncensoring the truth. Testimonies of victims of opposition violence during the failed coup attempt of 2018.
https://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/10378; see also Prensa Alternativa, June 7, 2022,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aubmCCHj_TY
[13]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttc7nTeSmK4
[14]
https://www.forbes.com.mx/venezuela-ini ... la-patria/; see also
https://orinocotribune.com/promoters-of ... rodriguez/;
https://orinocotribune.com/vanessa-neum ... not-clear/;
https://presidenciave.com/embassies/amb ... n-england/
[15]
https://www.ft.com/content/783b7c6c-9d9 ... 1a11c093d8
[16]
https://www.coha.org/coha-calls-for-the ... d-us-laws/; see also
https://www.coha.org/the-u-s-flies-alex ... on-treaty/ and
https://www.coha.org/new-revelations-of ... alex-saab/
[17]
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/10/ ... es-summit/
[18]
https://peoplessummit2022.org/thelatest ... -democracy
[19]
https://workerssummit.com/declaration/
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... -on-biden/
People’s Summit for Democracy Ends with a Bold Plan
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 14, 2022
Peoples Dispatch
Participants of the People’s Summit for Democracy protest the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas. Photo: Kamikia Kisedje
On the final day of the People’s Summit, organizers, volunteers, and attendees marched by the hundreds to the Summit of the Americas
The organizers of the People’s Summit for Democracy were determined to close out the summit with a lasting impression on the last day, June 10.
The People’s Summit was organized in opposition to the Summit of the Americas that was organized by the US-influenced Organization of American States (OAS) and hosted by the US in Los Angeles. The Summit of the Americas has historically been a place for the US to dictate a political agenda to the Latin American countries.
The Summit of the Americas has been plagued by difficulties since May 10, when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced that he would boycott the Summit in protest against the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the Summit. Following AMLO’s boycott, a host of Latin American leaders announced their own boycotts of the Summit.
On the morning of June 10, volunteers and organizers of the People’s Summit were determined to bring the spirit of the excluded countries right up to the doorstep of the Summit of the Americas.
Dozens of volunteers rose hours earlier than the People’s Summit start time of 11:30 am to gather in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center, where the US was hosting the Summit of the Americas.
Activists from the many convening organizations of the People’s Summit, such as Union de Vecinos, ANSWER Coalition, and People’s Forum, waved the flags of the three excluded countries directly outside the metal fences surrounding the Los Angeles Convention Center. The Summit of the Americas has been completely fenced off from the people of the US, effectively excluding the people from the discussions happening inside of the LA Convention Center.
People’s Summit volunteers on the morning of June 10, protesting outside of the Summit of the Americas (Photo: Midianinja)
“Working class and poor people in the United States have hundred times more in common with the people of Cuba and their government, a hundred times more in common with Venezuela and its government, than we do with the Wall Street bankers and capitalists who pretend to speak in our name,” said Brian Becker, executive director of the ANSWER Coalition, at the morning rally.
Volunteers went back to the People’s Summit shortly after, held at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College campus. They had set the stage for the mobilization of volunteers, guests, and participants of the People’s Summit that was scheduled for that day at 5 pm.
As the day came to a close, participants heard special messages at the last panel from the Presidents of Cuba and Venezuela, as well as former Bolivian President Evo Morales.
“The world is much bigger than the dominance and arrogance of Washington,” said President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, calling the People’s Summit “the true Summit of Los Angeles.”
After the last panel, People’s Summit organizers read their final statement, a culmination of the discussions and dialogue that occurred at the Summit between working and poor people across the Americas.
Attendees watch a videotaped address from Evo Morales (Photo: Midianinja)
“Humanity has no other choice but to fight,” read an organizer from Union de Vecinos. “We will be in the streets, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, constantly building and organizing. Carrying out the thousands of small tasks and big struggles that together bring us closer to victory. Our planet needs us. Our people need us. We will win!”
It is on this note that all those present at the People’s Summit began to mobilize for a march of hundreds to the Summit of the Americas. Marchers lined up in formation on the adjacent street, carrying representations of diverse people’s struggles from across the continent. Signs read “end white supremacy”, “end mass incarceration”, “workers make the world run”, and “housing for all”. Organizations across Los Angeles, the US, and the Americas marched with their banners, led by a truck carrying a group of speakers, chant leaders, and People’s Summit organizers.
Marchers heard from a host of speakers, including a young immigrant rights organizer from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), whose aunt went missing when she migrated across the Mexico-US border.
“[Migrants] are turned away from seeking asylum, and they’re forced across hostile terrain to reach American land. My aunt fell victim to that system.”
Coordinators, speakers, and chant leaders lead the march outside of the Summit of the Americas (Photo: Midianinja)
Speakers continued to expand upon the ideas of a new world that had been discussed and debated within the People’s Summit. Anti-imperialist activist Gloria la Riva addressed the crowd once marchers arrived at the LA Convention Center.
“This building should be housing everyone who lives in LA!” La Riva said, pointing to one of the tall glass buildings surrounding the Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles has one of the largest per capita homeless populations in the world.
“We have a crisis here. The only way to solve everything that we’re facing…it requires revolution. It requires a system where everything we build is owned and shared by us, and where the planning is ecological.”
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... bold-plan/
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ALBA Secretary: Summit of the Americas is ‘Failure,’ US ‘Empire is Losing Its Power’ (Interview)
JUNE 13, 2022
Sacha Sergio Llorenti Soliz, Secretary General of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP). File photo.
The secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), Sacha Llorenti, discusses Latin America and the Caribbean’s rebellion against the US government’s exclusionary Summit of the Americas, and growing efforts at regional integration against imperialism.
Multipolarista host Benjamin Norton interviewed the secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), Sacha Llorenti, about Latin America’s rebellion against the US government’s Summit of the Americas.
Presidents of eight countries in the region boycotted the conference, which opened in Los Angeles, California on June 6.
Llorenti discussed ALBA’s alternative summit in Cuba, efforts at achieving economic and political integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the importance of unity against imperialism.
“We don’t consider this a summit, nor of the Americas,” he said. Llorenti condemned the Monroe Doctrine, US sanctions, and the “superiority complex that runs through US foreign policy.”
“Things are changing,” he added. “What we are seeing is an empire which is losing its power.”
A transcript of the interview follows below. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT
BENJAMIN NORTON: Hello everyone, this is Ben Norton, and you are listening to or watching the Multipolarista podcast. This is a very special episode. I have the great privilege today of speaking with the executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance, the ALBA.
The full name is the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. It’s also an economic alliance, and the full name is ALBA-TCP, which is also a “Trade Agreement for the People.”
This is an economic alliance created by countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, to support independence from imperialism, sovereignty, and regional integration.
And today, I’m speaking with the secretary, the executive secretary of the ALBA, Sacha Llorenti. He is a former Bolivian diplomat and minister. He served as Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations, and as a minister under Bolivia’s former president, Evo Morales.
Today, we are going to be speaking about the ongoing Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California. This has been a diplomatic disaster for the U.S. government, which is hosting the summit.
At least eight countries in Latin America have boycotted – their heads of state have boycotted this summit, including the presidents of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Bolivia.
And Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are not attending either. The U.S. government refused to invite them, but they also said that they don’t even want to attend this summit, which they do not consider legitimate.
There are also reports about members of the Caribbean and the Caribbean community, CARICOM, who said that they would potentially boycott the summit, which is going on right now. Today is June 8. It started on June 6, and is going on this week in Los Angeles, California.
So unfortunately, Secretary Llorenti does not have a lot of time today, so I’m going to go straight to him.
Secretary Llorenti, you are the the leader of the ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance. Can you talk about what the ALBA’s position has been on the Summit of the Americas? And can you give a general response to how you think the U.S. government has managed this?
SACHA LLORENTI: Thank you very much. I want to thank you very much for the opportunity. First of all, we don’t consider this is a summit, nor of the Americas, because of the arbitrary decision of the host country, in this case the United States, to exclude some nations, countries of the Americas, of Latin America and the Caribbean, from this meeting.
The ALBA, just to give you some information about our organization, is a multilateral, subregional organization that gathers 10 countries from Latin America and also the Caribbean. It was established in 2004 by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. And then eight other countries joined our organization.
We held a summit of ALBA-TCP on May 27, just a few days ago. And in our declaration, we reject the exclusions and the discriminatory treatment in the so-called Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.
I think that, for any honest analyst, this meeting that was convened by the United States has failed already, not just because of the exclusions, but also because of the reaction of most countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
You mentioned a few. Everything started with the statements made by the president of Mexico, followed by the president of Honduras, of Bolivia. They have decided to take a strong position against this exclusion.
CARICOM, as you also mentioned, the Community of Caribbean States, had a meeting of foreign ministers a few weeks ago. And they also called the United States for everyone to participate in this meeting.
And also the president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states, CELAC, who is right now the president of Argentina, has said that he is going to participate in the so-called summit, but he will represent the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean, condemning the decision of the host country, the United States, to exclude these three countries.
So it is a failure, not just because the reaction that it has caused in the region, but also because I think that everyone realizes that the United States government is not interested in integration. It’s not interested in human rights, nor democracy.
What they do is they try to use every single venue, every single opportunity, in order to help their hegemonic interests instead of integration. This is a good example of what we are facing these days.
And another thing that I want to also underline is that it is not just the discrimination against these three countries, but also against many representatives of civil society from different countries.
So it shows really how the United States government considers our region. They continue to consider Latin America and the Caribbean as their backyard.
A few days ago, Joe Biden said, “It’s not our backyard; it’s our front yard.” They don’t realize that we are not anybody’s back or front yard at all.
And I think it’s a mix of not understanding what’s happening, but also this superiority complex that runs through the U.S. foreign policy towards Latin American and the Caribbean.
BENJAMIN NORTON: Ambassador Llorenti, I would like to speak also about the countries that are attending.
I mentioned the boycott by the presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; and Honduras, the new left-wing president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro; and the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce; and also the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, for different political reasons – he’s more conservative. But those are the presidents who are boycotting this summit.
Also the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. Together, these countries represent over 200 million people.
I should also mention mention that there are reports that the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is reportedly not attending.
So together, that’s more than 200 million people. In the region that is more than one-third of the population.
And the leaders who are attending are some of the leaders that are the most notorious for violating human rights.
I’m talking about Ivan Duque in Colombia, who is closely linked to drug trafficking. I’m also talking about the extremely right-wing president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who has threatened sitting politicians, who has praised the Pinochet dictatorship.
So what do you think this says about the fact that the progressive governments in the region are, at least their heads of state are, refusing to participate, but some of the most reactionary elements, that violate human rights and do not respect popular democracy are participating in this summit?
Along with, I should mention, the country of Spain, which was invited, which is very much not in the Americas. The last time I looked, Spain is in Europe.
So what do you think that says about this this summit that’s being organized by the U.S. government?
SACHA LLORENTI: As I said before, it’s a failure. It’s the way they look at our region.
But it’s part of a plan. It is not something that comes out of the blue. The United States has a clear policy of trying to dismantle, to destroy, every single attempt at genuine, authentic integration.
What happened in South America with UNASUR, the unity of nations of the South. It was destroyed by right-wing governments. And of course, everyone also understands that the hand of the State Department was behind that.
Also the privatization of CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, I mean, until Mexico took over the presidency.
So it is part of a plan. They don’t want a proper unity or integration of Latin American and Caribbean states.
That’s why, what they are trying to do is to have the OAS and its secretary general to be, like it was pointed out by Cuban revolutionary Che, the Ministry of the Colonies.
And I think it even goes even beyond that. I think that we have to understand that Latin America and the Caribbean has a different agenda, has different interests, has even a different doctrine than the United States.
This is the confrontation that we have now. It is a two-centuries-old confrontation.
The Monroe Doctrine, that was published in 1823 – it’s going to be 200 years old next year – and the Bolivarian Doctrine, that is also 200 years old.
Those two doctrines are in confrontation, because of the incompatibility of their interests for 200 years.
And of course some countries of our region align themselves to the Monroe Doctrine, and some others to the Bolivarian Doctrine.
I believe that our venue for integration is not the Summit of the Americas. I believe that the true, authentic venue for us to get together is CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
And a proposal has come out in the summit of ALBA. The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and also President Maduro recently reiterated the proposal of having meetings with the United States, of course, and Canada, but in another kind of format.
CELAC has regular meetings with China, with Russia, with different countries. And I think that this kind of format could be established with the United States and Canada.
But we need some venue in which things are run by Latin America and the Caribbean countries and interests, not the US interests. Because, as I said, they are not aligned.
And just another thing on who is going on and who is not going. What I believe is that most of the leaders or representatives that are that are going are going to protest the situation.
And the ones that are not going, of course they are not going in protest of the decisions of the United States.
The summit is a failure. But I think that we have to understand that the integration will not be achieved through the Summit of the Americas.
Because from the beginning, from 1994 when the first summit was held, the purpose of the United States was to have a free market area in America.
And of course that failed. In 2005, in the summit held Mar del Plata in Argentina, when leaders such as Néstor Kirchner, Tabaré Vázquez, Lula da Silva, Hugo Chávez, had a strong position against the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The main interests of the United States is to have control of Latin America and the Caribbean’s natural resources. That’s the first interest.
The second one is for the region to be the market for U.S. products, or companies, or multinational corporations.
Also, they want our workers for cheap labor.
And the whole reason of their interest is for them to control all the commercial, international commercial routes. That’s why the Panama Canal is so important. That’s why they did everything that they could in order to stop the project for the canal in Nicaragua.
And the fifth reason is for them to to punish everyone who does not obey their commands.
But things are changing in Latin America and the Caribbean. And the dignity which most of the countries are expressing in their rejection of the U.S. decisions is going to be the main and most important issue that will be discussed, or is being discussed in Los Angeles right now.
BENJAMIN NORTON: Secretary Llorenti, you mentioned that, just a few weeks ago, there was a summit held in Cuba of the members of the ALBA. These are countries in both Latin America and the Caribbean.
Can you talk about what was discussed in that summit and the final declaration that was published?
SACHA LLORENTI: Well, the declaration was a very important one. As I mentioned before, ALBA brings together the 10 countries. Allow me to mention them, because I think it’s important. It’s one-third of the whole Latin American and the Caribbean region.
It’s Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Those 10 countries gathered in Havana. And the first point that they adopted was the rejection of exclusions and the discriminatory treatment in the so-called Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.
They pointed out that genuine regional integration should be made by the CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. And the underlined the the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace.
That’s why the presence of US military bases is an aggression to this proclamation of our region as a zone of peace. Also the presence of NATO goes against this this proclamation.
So that’s that’s another point that was underlined in our summit.
The other thing is the the support for the right of all countries of the continent to be not just invited but also to participate in meetings such as the so-called Summit of the Americas.
Also, the ALBA has denounced the discriminatory treatment by the United States as the host country of the so-called Summit of the Americas against numerous representatives of the genuine civil society of our continent.
And also we rejected the unilateral coercive measures that the United States imposes against countries of our alliance. This goes against the principles of the UN Charter. It goes against international law, and against the principles of multilateralism as well.
We have to repeat every single time that the United States imposes a blockade, an embargo, against Cuba for more than six decades. That’s a crime against humanity. Also against Venezuela and Nicaragua.
And this is, I think, something that we should should always remember, that the United States government used the [Covid-19] pandemic as a weapon. They weaponized the pandemic against not just these three countries, but some others in the world. Because instead of trying to lift some of these illegal measures against the peoples of these countries, they used the pandemic in order to strengthen these illegal, unilateral coercive measures.
So the [ALBA] summit based itself in the principles and purposes of the United Nations charter, that the United States has committed itself to uphold, the same thing with international law.
BENJAMIN NORTON: Ambassador Llorenti, you mentioned that the U.S. government has gone out of its way supporting coups to try to prevent countries from integrating into the Bolivarian Alliance.
For instance, Honduras under President Manuel Zelaya was a member of the ALBA. There was a US-backed coup in 2009, and Honduras was removed from the ALBA.
Similarly, Ecuador had been part of the ALBA, and there was this betrayal, a kind of internal soft coup by Lenín Moreno against the former president, Rafael Correa. And he withdrew Ecuador from the ALBA.
And I would say, from studying this, that one of the main reasons that Washington has been afraid of the ALBA is that it proposes an economic alternative for the region, based on regional integration, based on bartering, and based on the creation of a new currency.
The ALBA did create a new currency for trade in the region, called the Sucre.
And we saw recent comments from the former president of Brazil Lula da Silva, who said that if he wins the October election, that he plans on creating a new currency in Latin America and the Caribbean for trade called the Sur.
Can you talk about attempts in the region to create a new currency, to integrate the economics of the region, and to create more independence from the U.S. dollar and U.S. hegemony?
SACHA LLORENTI: Yes, first of all, you mentioned many of the the countries in which the United States was part of a coup d’etat. I have to add Bolivia to that list.
What the OAS and the United States supported was a dictatorship in my own country. And, I mean, what happened in Bolivia was, of course, one of the latest examples of how the United States does not care about democracy.
They talk about democracy, but what they do is they organize and finance not just coups d’etat, but also the political instability in our countries.
We we have to ask ourselves for instance, who funded, who is funding the opposition in countries such as Nicaragua, or Cuba, or Venezuela? Through NGOs, directly, is the United States.
So they are the last ones to try to teach lessons on democracy or human rights.
Our countries, our peoples, know exactly what they have done for decades and decades in Latin America and the Caribbean.
And you mentioned the efforts in order to achieve a different kind of relationship in terms of economics or finances. That’s one of the goals of ALBA-TCP.
We have made tremendous advances in terms of having an economic relationship based on solidarity, not just profit. Petrocaribe is another example, in which the solidarity of Venezuela has been shown all over the region, in terms of providing energy in an affordable way for different countries.
The idea of having our own currency is, of course, one of our goals. And we were pleased by the declaration made by Lula da Silva. That’s an effort that we have to continue working on.
Because imperialism is not just the political control; imperialism is not just territorial control; imperialism is also very, very much linked to natural resources, to the financial system, to how the debt system works; it is very much related to the World Bank, to the International Monetary Fund, the way in which the dollar imposes its will on the whole world.
And things are changing. Things are changing, not just in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also in Asia and Africa.
So what we are seeing is an empire which is losing its power. And I think that this century will be a century in which we will see the decay U.S. imperialism.
BENJAMIN NORTON: Secretary Llorenti, in addition to being the executive secretary of the ALBA, you were previously a Bolivian minister under President Evo Morales, and Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations.
You mentioned the US-backed coup in Bolivia in 2019 against Evo Morales. The people of Bolivia were able to overthrow, democratically, that coup, defeat the coup regime at the ballot box.
And the current government, led by the Movement Toward Socialism party and President Luis Arce, the government – the judicial system has just said that the former dictator, Jeanine Áñez, faces 15 years in prison.
I’m wondering if you can comment on the process of defeating the coup in Bolivia and the restoration of democracy in your country.
SACHA LLORENTI: Well I believe that the Bolivian people have written one of the most heroic, epic pages in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Because if we compare similar processes in some other countries, we will find that there are very, very few examples in which the people itself recover democracy after a short period of time.
I mean, it took in some cases 10 or 15 years before the people would get back to power. In the case of Bolivia, it took one year.
But at a very high cost. There were two massacres in Bolivia. Almost 40 people were killed. People were persecuted and were jailed. Many of us had to go into exile.
But the people itself recovered democracy, democratically. And now what has happened in Bolivia, they are of course people who took power illegally, and are being prosecuted. And we hope that all of those responsible will be rightfully and lawfully punished.
I think that will send a clear message not just to Bolivians, but also to all Latin Americans and Caribbeans, that coups d’etat should be part of the past.
But we also understand that the right-wing interests, the oligarchy, or the U.S. interests do not support democracy. When democracy does not fit their interests, they go and do these things that they have done, not just in Bolivia; they also tried to do that in Nicaragua in 2018.
They tried to do it in Venezuela. The latest revelations of what they were organizing in Venezuela are really, really scary. Not just mercenaries, not just the discussion of military intervention, but also they tried to kill President Maduro.
So we have to be aware. We don’t have the luxury of being naive. We have to be alert 24/7. Because the rights of the people, the benefits of this revolutionary process, are not safe if we are naive.
BENJAMIN NORTON: Secretary Llorenti, I know that you are a very busy man, and I know we have to wrap up the interview. I just want to conclude with one final question.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that, in Los Angeles right now, outside of the US government-sponsored summit, there is an alternative summit called the Summit of the Peoples, the People’s Summit for Democracy.
This has been organized by social movements across the Americas, including social movements in the United States and Canada, but also social movements in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
And one of the co-conveners of this People’s Summit for Democracy that’s going on in protest, is ALBA Movimientos, the social movement arm of the ALBA. I believe it’s independent from ALBA, the body that brings together the countries.
But I’m wondering if you can just speak about the People’s Summit for Democracy that’s going on to protest the US government-sponsored, exclusionary summit.
SACHA LLORENTI: I believe that’s a real summit, the People’s Summit. Because the policy of exclusion of the United States has made clear what’s at stake.
There are global and regional threats. We are missing the opportunity for governments to talk about health, to talk about climate change, to talk about debt, to talk about the real challenges that our peoples face.
So we are looking forward to the conclusions of the People’s Summit. We are going to participate. I will participate virtually on the last day of the summit.
And we we believe that they were also victims of this discriminatory policy. Because, as I pointed out, many representatives of civil society of our countries were excluded from the participation of the Summit [of the Americas], because the US government didn’t provided visas for these people.
So we look forward to the conclusions of the summit. I think that this is going to be a milestone on the long process for hope for our peoples to get together and to struggle against our common threats.
And our common threats are imperialism, capitalism, colonialism, and, of course, patriarchy as well.
So that’s my point of view. And I really thank you very much for this opportunity.
BENJAMIN NORTON: I want to thank you, Secretary Sacha Llorenti, the executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance, the ALBA.
For people who want to find more information about Secretary Llorenti and the ALBA, you can follow him on Twitter at @SachaLlorenti. And you can also follow the ALBA at @ALBATCP.
Again, I want to thank you, Secretary Llorenti. I know you’re a very busy man. It was a real pleasure speaking with you.
SACHA LLORENTI: Thank you. It was my pleasure, Ben.
https://orinocotribune.com/alba-secreta ... interview/
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Gabriel Boric Lashes Out at Cuba and Venezuela at Summit of the Americas
JUNE 11, 2022
Gabriel Boric, president of Chile. File photo.
The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, criticized the governments of the Republic of Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela during his participation in the 9th Summit of the Americas, held during 6-10 June in Los Angeles, California.
Boric thus distanced himself further from his supposed leftist position with which he identified himself during his electoral campaign and his reputation as a student and youth leader on which most of his political career is based.
The television network Univisión released an interview with Boric, in which he stated that when it comes to Venezuelan migration to Chile, “I believe that no country has the capacity to absorb by itself a migratory flow as large as the one that has been from Venezuela in recent years.”
The Chilean president denied that the Chilean society is based on xenophobia, but he reiterated that Chile is currently unable to assume the recent migratory flow, without the support of other countries in the region. However, he did not mention the real reason of the Venezuelan migration—the total economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed on the country by the US government, which the former President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, had supported and applauded. In addition, Piñera encouraged Venezuelan migration many times, announcing attractive support mechanisms for Venezuelan who would migrate to Chile; however, those were all lies and empty promises.
Anti-Chavista Boric
Boric also distanced himself from Hugo Chávez as the continent’s revolutionary leader, and denied that he might be an example for his administration. “Unfortunately Hugo Chávez is not the path towards which I want us to build Chile,” he said.
The Chilean president also criticized the current Venezuelan administration, asserting that the Maduro government is authoritarian and has concentrated powers, and called the Bolivarian government an incorrect political system.
He criticized Cuba as well, stating that it is unacceptable that “they hold people prisoners for thinking differently.”
As for the Summit of the Americas, he said that he had initially thought of not attending the forum. However, he later changed his opinion. “By isolating countries that have authoritarian tendencies, all we are doing is reaffirming their positions,” he commented.
This is not the first time that Boric has criticized Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua for alleged authoritarianism and violation of human rights by the governments of these countries. However, while the Chilean president lectures others on human rights violation, his own government violates the rights of the Mapuche indigenous people of Chile. He has been called out for this hypocritical position by sectors of the Chilean left as well as by progressive movements across the continent.
(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
https://orinocotribune.com/gabriel-bori ... -americas/
Bet a quarter that this guy has been an opportunistic hustler since Day One. The Left has got to better than supporting this sort of trash in order to keep the petty booj warm and fuzzy. Fuck those people, they retard progress now or stab you in the back later.
Sounds like the Democratic Party, USA.