Cuba was among the first countries to which the Panamanian Foreign Ministry handed the invitation to participate in the Summit of the Americas, at the request of several Latin American countries.
Thus, Cuban President Raúl Castro Ruz was officially invited to participate in the gathering of the continent in April 2015. If Cuba decides to attend, it would be the first time it does it after the beginning of these top level conversations in 1994.
The forum was initiated by the United States to decide actions of common interest in the continent. However, given the controversy following the invitation of Panama to Cuba raised, neither the US government nor the Canadian have confirmed their attendance.
In the invitation, Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela notes that the Summit “seeks to be a space for dialogue to renew the commitments of countries in the region, achieving greater rapprochement and cooperation between peoples of America,” according to various news agencies.
In recent months, several Western media “wake up” the theme Cuba in its pages and mark the Panama meeting as a landmark for turning political relations in the region now. Among them stands out the American newspaper The New York Times, which published six editorials recognizing Cuba´s global medical record, demanding an end to the embargo, attacks US policy to induce Cuban doctors to defect and calls for a negotiated prisoners swap.
This December 3rd, the British newspaper The Guardian published an opinion article by journalist Seumas Milne. The commentary entitled “Extraordinary help of Cuba in health embarrass the US blockade” reviews Cuba’s major achievements in terms of internationalism, especially the most recent contribution to the fight against Ebola.
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Milne calls directly to the Obama administration to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and soften the blockade policy, which could start “for the release of three Cuban intelligence agents left out of the Miami Five, imprisoned ago 16 years for spying on Cuban groups related to terrorism “.
Again, the summit of the presidents of America, scheduled for April, is a central hub in the opinion articles on Cuba-US relations. Milne writes: “The obvious for Obama to end the US 50-year campaign against the independence of Cuba would be at the Summit of the Americas next April – which Latin American governments had threatened to boycott unless invite Cuba is invited. The greatest contribution that people who really care about democratic freedoms in Cuba can make is to take the US off the country´s back. ”
The Guardian is a British newspaper that is characterized by posting left-leaning opinions and belongs to the Guardian Media Group. The columnist and associate editor Seumas Milne worked as a reporter for 2001-2007 on coverages from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, South Asia and Latin America.
