By Lara Holmes

Ecuador's government yesterday reiterated the stance of the countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) to not participate in the Summit of the Americas, if Cuba is excluded from the forum.

The position was expressed by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa said Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño when asked to comment on a statement issued by the U.S. in the sense that Cuba did not qualify enough to be invited to the summit .

 

The countries were clustered into the ALBA summit in Venezuela recently announced they would not attend the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, scheduled from 13 to 17 April, if Cuba did not receive an invitation.

 

Patiño said the U.S. view is the U.S.’s, our opinion is our opinion. We expect the majority and wider opinion of the American countries is that Cuba our sister be invited to the Summit of the Americas.

According to the Ecuadorian foreign minister, the Summit of the Americas is a political forum of heads of state to be independent of the Organization of American States (OAS), and therefore it is unacceptable for Cuba not to be invited. Cuba was excluded from the OAS after the victory of socialist revolution.

The ALBA is comprised of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti and Dominica.

The Summit of the Americas was convened under the theme Connecting the Americas: partners in prosperity, which will analyze the importance of integration and regional cooperation to promote development of the nations of the continent.