Americas summit cannot last without Cuba: Bolivian president
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E-mail Xinhua, April 15, 2012
The Sixth Summit of the Americas would be the last of its kind if Cuba continued to be barred from future summits, Bolivian President Evo Morales said in Cartagena Saturday.
"I am sure that there will be no more summits unless Cuba is admitted," Morales told a press conference, referring to the fact that many nations have said they would not attend future hemispheric summits without Cuba's participation.
Cuba, which was suspended from the membership of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1962, was officially readmitted in 2009. However, the United States opposes inviting Cuba to the summits, insisting the island country does not meet the standards laid out in the bloc's charter.
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America nations, an alliance which groups Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and three small Caribbean states, said that they would not take part in any future summit without Cuba's involvement, according to a statement released by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on Saturday.
Morales said Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had also suggested that the hemispheric summit, which debuted in 1994, should come to an end unless Cuba was involved.
The Cuba issue took center stage on the opening day of the two-day summit at the Colombian Caribbean resort city of Cartagena.
On Thursday, 32 OAS member states voted to allow Cuba to be represented on an "extraordinary" basis at Saturday's summit, which, however, was blocked by Canada and the United States.
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