Cuba, drug trafficking dominate summit

American countries.
He criticised the policy of “isolation” and “embargo” against Cuba, calling it “an anachronism that keeps us anchored to an outdated Cold War era.”
“We cannot be indifferent to the process of change that is going on in Cuba. It is time to overcome our differences so that this process can receive support,” he told a gathering of 31 hemispheric leaders.
He expressed the hope that Cuba would be present at the next summit, saying its absence then would be “unthinkable.”
At the opening session, Juan Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organisation of the American States (OAS), also made a veiled appeal to the leaders.
“Presidents (of the region) are faced with a dilemma,” he said.
“On the one hand, OAS principles call for the presence of all nations, but the democratic charter demands full observance of civil rights. The best way to strengthen this organisation is via dialogue and tolerance,” he stressed.
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, a bloc of eight Latin American and Caribbean nations, said on Saturday that it will boycott any future Americas summit unless Cuba is granted unconditional admission to the hemispheric gathering.
“Our brother republic Cuba, as a part of our Americas, has the unconditional and unquestionable right to be present and participate in this forum,” the group said in a statement, declaring: “We will not participate in Cuba’s absence.”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is battling cancer and has called the summit meaningless as it is shunning fundamental issues like Argentina’s claim of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands (known as the Falkland Islands for the British) and Cuba’s exclusion from the hemispheric event, was absent from the gathering as well. Cuba, which was suspended from the OAS in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, has been unable to participate in all the past summits since 1994. Bolivian President Evo Morales demanded Cuba’s presence at future hemispheric summits, saying: “We are convinced this will be the last summit without Cuba.”
He argued: “How can we talk about integration if we exclude Cuba?” But in his remarks, US president Barack Obama made no mention of Cuba. Surveys show that the general public in Latin America see crime, violence and insecurity as the region’s top problems, and there is a growing consensus that the root cause is the massive use of narcotics in the United States, and an unending flow of money and weapons southward to drug cartels.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon who has launched a war on drug cartels urged his peers to stop stalling and re-examine the approaches to the fight against drug trafficking “without dogma, without prejudice,” by looking at “different scenarios and possible alternatives.”
“This summit is not going to resolve this issue, but it can be a starting point to begin a discussion that we have been postponing for far too long,” the president said.
For his part, President Obama, while acknowledging that his country shared responsibility, said “no” to the idea of legalising and decriminalising drugs as proposed by some Central American leaders.
“Here in Cartagena, I hope we can focus on our mutual responsibilities,” Obama said.
“As I’ve said many times, the United States accepts our share of responsibility for drug violence,” he said. — Xinhua.