US Again Spurns Cuba’s Attendance at Americas Summit

HAVANA TIMES, Feb 16 — The US State Department reiterated yesterday that Havana should not attend the Summit of the Americas until that country undertakes democratic reforms.

William Ostick, the agency’s spokesman for Latin American affairs, recalled the declaration signed at the Summit of the Americas’ meeting in Quebec in 2001 establishing that “only democratically elected leaders in the hemisphere may be invited to participate.”

Meanwhile, the member-countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) are insisting on Cuba’s participation in the meeting as a condition of their own attendance at the gathering slated to be held in Colombia in April.