By Chantalé Fletcher
CUBA may be denied access to the Ninth Summit of the Americas that takes place in Los Angeles in June.
This according to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley speaking at the VIP Lounge, Piarco International Airport on Thursday.
He said, “That will raise a difficulty for CARICOM because our principles in dealing with Cuba are quite clear, that we do not have sanctions on Cuba and we don’t regard them as the devil incarnate.”
Dr Rowely returned from the roundtable discussion on De-Risking and Correspondent Banking in Barbados where he met with other CARICOM leaders.
He said US Special Advisor Chris Dodd met with the CARICOM team in which there were full and frank discussions on the issues of who would represent Venezuela at the summit and who will be seated.
He said there was a call and demand for President Juan Guaidó or his representative to be invited to the meeting and this created difficulty for CARICOM.
“We don’t acknowledge there is a President Guaidó and the United Nations acknowledged the Government of Venezuela is a Maduro Government, so the Summit of the Americas seating officials who do not belong to the bonafide Government is a difficulty,” Dr Rowely added.
He recalled being under similar circumstances in the past.
Dr Rowley said, “We had the painful experience and T&T took it on the chair while CARICOM was in the chair, an official from the Guaidó Government had the floor at the Organization of America States (OAS) and castigated Trinidad and Tobago, holding us responsible when Venezuelans drowned under coastlines before they get to T&T.”
He hoped the situation would not occur again as a meeting was scheduled with Dodd next week, as he sought to create workable arrangements before the Summit.
After the Venezuelan presidential elections in 2018, Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó declared himself acting President in 2019 and disrupted Nicolás Maduro’s swearing-in with a challenge his re-election.
This led to the OAS approving a resolution in a special session of its Permanent Council declaring Maduro’s victory illegitimate and called for new elections.
However, Guaidó’s presidency was then recognised by the OAS which led to Maduro accusing the United States of organising a coup to remove him and take control of the country’s oil reserves.
This rift has remained as Guaidó continued to be recognised by 60 countries including the US, Canada, Latin America and Europe, while Maduro maintains recognition by 20 countries which include Russia, China, Cuba, Iran and Turkey.
