The decision of the Dominican Republic not to invite Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua to the Summit of the Americas – the largest presidential meeting in the hemisphere, which will take place on December 4 in Punta Cana – deserves applause. But the Summit should go further and openly condemn these dictatorships.
According to the official statement from the Dominican Government, the decision not to invite Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua was taken taking into account “the hemispheric circumstances” and “favors greater attendance” for the meeting.
My translation: If these three dictatorships were invited, the United States would notor sent a fourth-rate representative.
Already the previous US government of President Joe Biden had excluded the three Latin American dictatorships from the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in 2022. Since then, the abuses of democracy and human rights in the three countries have only gotten worse.
In Venezuela, the regime Nicolas Maduro brazenly stole the 2024 presidential election, election observers from the Carter Center and several countries confirmed.
The Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, and his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum, last April.
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The Venezuelan opposition showed the voting records that show that the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia had swept the polls, but Maduro proclaimed himself re-elected without ever showing proof of his supposed victory. What’s more, it unleashed violent repression against the opposition.
In Nicaragua, the dictator Daniel Ortega In the last two years it closed dozens of media outlets, civil society organizations and universities. In addition, it expelled from the country and withdrew the citizenship of more than 300 opposition leaders and political prisoners.
In Cuba, where there have been no free elections for more than six decadesthe regime continues with its arbitrary arrests. In addition, it approved a new “Communications Law” that prohibits private ownership of the media and even penalizes criticism of the Government on social networks.
Roberto Alvarezthe foreign minister of the Dominican Republic, told me in an interview that “given the political situation that exists in our hemisphere, we consider it advisable to have the greatest possible participation in the event, and since the Summit of the Americas was a creation of the United States, we consider it appropriate not to extend invitations” to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
When I asked him if he received any reaction from the presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil about the exclusion of the three countries, he told me that “no country has told us at any level that they would not participate” if any nation is excluded.
At the 2022 Summit, the former president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador boycotted the meeting to protest the exclusion of Cubaand sent his chancellor in his place.
Other sources at the Summit tell me that it is most likely that if the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaumdecides not to participate, he will make any excuse, but he will not do a political show like his predecessor. Most likely, the president of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silvaattend the summit, they added.
The White House has not yet said anything about whether the president Donald Trump will attend the summit, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t go and send the Secretary of State Marco Rubio instead.
Trump is not very interested in Latin Americaand he has said it publicly. When a journalist asked him on the first day of his second presidency about the United States’ future relations with Latin America and Brazil, he responded: “We don’t need them. They need us.”
Still, if Trump sends Rubio in his place, it would be the region’s most important regional summit with the United States since Trump took office for his second term. At the recent meeting of OAS foreign ministers, Rubio was not even present, who sent his second, Christopher Landauinstead.
In any case, regardless of attendance at the Summit of the Americas in December, the participating countries should include in their final declaration a stronger condemnation than they have done so far for Venezuela to recognize the results of the 2024 elections, and for Cuba and Nicaragua to release their political prisoners. Otherwise, This summit will be a joke, like so many others before it.
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