The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, in a letter addressed on 2 April 2012 to his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos, said that he will not be attending the 6th Summit of the Americas in Cartagena de Indias on April 14 and 15 because of Cuba’s impossibility to attend the meeting.

As long as I am the head of State, Ecuador will not attend any "Summit of the Americas" until the decisions required by thePatria Grande [1] are made, declared Correa.

He added that unfortunately, although at the 5th Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago from April 17 to 19, 2009, Cuba’s incomprehensible exclusion from the summits of the Americas was rejected, once again, this twin country has not been invited.

Correa said that it is "unacceptable that these summits avoid such fundamental issues as the inhumane blockade against Cuba, and the aberrant colonization of the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, which are almost unanimously rejected by the nations of the world."

Mr. Correa said in his letter that his initiative was not intended to cause Colombia any problems, and he wishes the Summit every success.

Ecuador had requested Member States of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) not to go to the summit, but the proposal was turned down.

The United States rejects Cuba’s presence at the Summit, arguing that only "democratic" states which are active members of the Organization of American States (OAS) can participate.

Washington pushed Cuba out of the OAS in 1962. However, in 2009, the decision was annulled, but the Cuban authorities have so far not officially notified the regional organization of their application for reinstatement.

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President Correa’s letter regarding Summit of the Americas (in Spanish).
(PDF - 304.7 KiB)

[1] La Patria Grande is a term created by the Argentinian socialist writer Manuel Ugarte Baldomero. It refers to the Spanish-American nation in the Bolivarian sense of the term.