Mexico rejects exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her disagreement with the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua. and Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas to be held in December in the Dominican Republic.

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“No, I will not attend,” she said bluntly, adding that she is considering whether someone from the Foreign Affairs Ministry could attend in her place.

“First of all, we have never agreed with excluding any country … and, in addition, under the current circumstances, I will be attending to the country and, in particular, the emergency,” Sheinbaum added, referring to the floods caused by heavy rains in central Mexico that have so far left 64 people dead.

Since taking office in October 2024, Sheinbaum has made only four international trips: the G20 summit in Brazil in November 2024, the CELAC summit in Honduras in April, the G7 summit in Canada in June, and a trilateral meeting in Guatemala with President Bernardo Arevalo and Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño in August.

On Sept. 30, the Dominican Foreign Ministry announced President Luis Abinader’s decision not to invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the 10th Summit of the Americas, scheduled for Dec. 4 and 5 in Punta Cana.

In a statement, the Dominican presidency said that although the 10th summit was intended to be inclusive, the current context of political polarization makes it a priority to extend the invitation to “as many countries as possible.”

In that regard, “the decision not to invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — countries that, for various reasons, have chosen not to be part of the OAS and did not participate in the previous edition of the Summit of the Americas — is the decision that, given current hemispheric circumstances, favors the broadest possible participation and ensures the forum’s success,” the Dominican Foreign Ministry said.

The decision not to invite them this time “responds to a strictly multilateral criterion,” it added, emphasizing that the Dominican Republic’s bilateral relations with each of these states “maintain their own characteristics.”

The 9th Summit of the Americas, held in Los Angeles in 2022, was also marked by the absence of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Then-Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also declined to attend.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: teleSUR – EFE

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