The IX Summit of the Americas kicked off this Monday in Los Angeles giving voice to civil societywho denounced the democratic and environmental setbacks that the region is experiencing, on a first day in which the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua by the United States was confirmed.
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The opening of the IX Civil Society Forum marked the starting signal for this continental event, which will be held until next Friday and which has begun still focused on the debate on the guest list, while casualties accumulate in the face of the leaders meeting.
The Joe Biden Administration confirmed the suspicions of recent days early: the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are out. The main person in charge of the US Department of State for Latin America, Brian Nichols, explained to journalists that decision, which has upset several governments of Latin American countries.
In Venezuela “there is a lack of freedom” and “political prisoners”a situation that is contrary to the “fundamental documents of the Summit of the Americas,” Nichols stressed about the Caribbean nation, moments before the opening of the Civil Society Forum.
“We understand that there are other opinions and we spent a lot of time talking to others, thinking about advancing on those issues, but in the end that is what weighed the most in our decision,” he completed to affirm later that they are preparing a new round of sanctions against the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega.
almost parallel, The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obradorwho had already warned that he would not go to the summit in case there were exclusions, got off the ship, as his Bolivian counterpart had done before, louis arce.
Also Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammatteiconfirmed his withdrawal this Monday due to scheduling problems, while his Uruguayan counterpart, Luis Lacalle Pouwill not be either, but for a positive for covid-19.
Harris will announce 1,900 million in private investments in Central America
The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, will announce this Tuesday at a meeting with Caribbean leaders – to be held within the framework of the Summit of the Americas – new cprivate investment commitments to create economic opportunities in northern Central America worth $1.9 billionadvanced an official of his Government.
In a call with the press, that source indicated that this proposal is part of Harris’ plan to tackle the economic and social causes of migration to the United States. The new investments are part of the “Call to Action” plan and come on top of the Vice President’s December 2021 announcement of $1.2 billion in private sector commitments, involving PepsiCo, Microsoft, Nespresso and MasterCard.
Almagro inaugurated the Summit
Luis Almagro aligned himself with the US speech when opening the Civil Society Forum, which is being held today and tomorrow in a Los Angeles hotel under strict security measures.
“The holding of the ninth Summit reflects the commitment of the United States to renew its hemispheric alliance to address the economic recovery of the region, work together to strengthen responses to possible health emergencies, and to firmly and determinedly defend democracy,” manifested.
In this context, Monday’s conferences focused especially on the defense of democracy and also on the protection of the environment.
“The human rights situation is very serious because there are too many violations in important countries, like Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua“Venezuelan Óscar López, project director of the organization ‘Pan American and Caribbean Union for Human Rights’ (Pacuhr, for its acronym in English) told Efe.
He also stressed that the exclusion of these three countries from the summit shows “the rejection of societies that believe in democracy, freedoms and the quality and well-being of their citizens.”
concern for the environment
The importance of conserving the environment was also the protagonist on this first day, at a time when alarms are rising over the growing threats facing key ecosystems for the global climate, such as the Amazon, and the indigenous peoples that inhabit them.
This same Monday, the disappearance in a remote region of the Brazilian Amazon of the British journalist Dom Phillips, a contributor to The Guardian newspaper, and the Brazilian indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira, who had suffered threats a few days ago by alleged invaders, was known.
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Other complaints about the devastation and spiral of violence that the Amazon is currently suffering reached Los Angeles today. Raquel Nemo Andy Guiquita, an indigenous member of the Waorani ethnic group and spokesperson for Confeniae, an entity made up of 22 organizations of different indigenous peoples from Ecuador, denounced to Efe that the largest tropical forest on the planet is “under threat” by laws and decrees promoted by the governments themselves. of each country to economically develop those territories.
“We are at this summit to raise our voices and to create a special agenda for the Amazon because they are currently creating (oil) platforms and highways within our territories,” he said.
“It is time for world leaders to act to save the Amazon”said Nemo Andy Guiquita, who has also traveled to Los Angeles to ask the State of California to stop buying “crude oil that comes directly” from their land.
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