Saturday, April 14, 2012

US, Canada unmoving in Cuba stance

US, Canada unmoving in Cuba stance
Updated: 05:28, Sunday April 15, 2012

A summit of 33 Western Hemisphere leader has opened with the United
States and Canada standing firm, but alone, against everyone else's
insistence that Cuba join future summits.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, a US ally, opened the summit
with a criticism of Cuba's exclusion, calling it an unjustified
anachronism of the Cold War.

He also urged a reconsideration of the war on narcotics that he said
began a century ago, referring obliquely to growing suggestions that the
hemisphere's nations consider ending a prohibition of many drugs that
has fed violence and crime.

The Sixth Summit of the Americas has also taken on a tabloid tinge with
12 US Secret Service agents sent home for alleged misconduct that
apparently included prostitutes and days of heavy pre-summit poolside
drinking.

US President Barack Obama has been clinging to a rejection of Cuban
participation in the summits, which everyone but Canada deems unjust.

'This is the last Summit of the Americas,' Bolivia's foreign minister,
David Choquehuanca, told The Associated Press, 'unless Cuba is allowed
to take part'.

The fate of the summit's final declaration has been thrown into
uncertainty as the foreign ministers of Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay
said on Friday their presidents wouldn't sign it unless the US and
Canada removed their veto of future Cuban participation.

Vigorous discussion is also expected on drug legalisation, which the
Obama administration opposes. And Obama will be in the minority in his
opposition to Argentina's claim to the British-controlled Falkland Islands.

The charismatic Obama may be able to charm the region's leaders as he
did in 2009 with a pledge of being an 'equal partner' but he will also
have to prove the US truly values their friendship and a stake in their
growth.

'The United States should realise that its long-term strategic interests
are not in Afghanistan or in Pakistan but in Latin America,' Santos said
in a speech to business leaders at a parallel CEO summit on Friday.

In large part, declining US influence comes down to waning economic
clout, as China gains on the US as a top trading partner. It has
surpassed the US in trade with Brazil, Chile, and Peru and is a close
second in Argentina and Colombia.

'Most countries of the region view the United States as less and less
relevant to their needs - and with declining capacity to propose and
carry out strategies to deal with the issues that most concern them,'
the Washington-based think tank the Inter-American Dialogue noted in a
pre-summit report.

Stereotypes of ugly Americans were, unfortunately, reinforced on summit
eve with misconduct allegations.

A caller who alerted The Associated Press to the case said the
misconduct involved prostitutes.

A Secret Service spokesman did not dispute that. Nor did the US official
who, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the matter's
sensitivity, put the number of agents sent home at 12. The agency was
not releasing the number of personnel involved.

One employee of the hotel where the agents stayed, the beachfront
Caribe, said the agents drank large quantities of alcohol at the
poolside daily for about a week before being dressed down by a
supervisor and sent home on Thursday. The employee spoke on condition of
anonymity because he feared for his job.

http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=739685&vId=

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