​

Los Angeles, June 10 (RHC)-- The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, deplored that not all countries were invited to the IX Summit of the Americas when he addressed the heads of state and government in his capacity as president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

"I regret that not all of us who should have been present in this environment so conducive to debate have been present," he said Thursday during the opening plenary meeting.   Fernández questioned "the global order" in which "the central world has set evidently inequitable financial rules" and referred to the blockade that Cuba has endured "for more than six decades as a result of the Cold War years."

"Venezuela tolerates another one, while a pandemic that devastates humanity drags with it millions of lives," he expressed.  The Argentinean president affirmed that "with measures of this type, they seek to condition governments" and insisted that he would have liked to attend "another summit of the Americas."

"The silence of those who are absent questions us," he said, following the U.S. decision not to invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the gathering.

The Argentinean president observed that "in order for it not to happen again," the host country of the Summit of the Americas should not confer "the ability to impose the right of admission on the member countries of the continent."

Next, Fernandez invited his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, to "open up in a fraternal manner in pursuit of common interests."  Addressing the U.S. leader, Alberto Fernandez emphasized that the administration that preceded him -- that of Donald Trump -- "established an immensely harmful policy for our region."

For example, Fernandez questioned the role of the Organization of American States (OAS) in the coup d'état in Bolivia.  In addition, "the actions of rapprochement with Cuba, in which Pope Francis mediated, were thwarted," he said.

Therefore, "a single thought cannot be imposed on a world that demands symphonic harmony in the face of the existing dramas," he insisted.

The Summit of the Americas, which was established in 1994 and is usually convened every three years, except for the previous edition, which took place in 2018, is the only meeting that, in principle, brings together the 35 heads of state of the countries of the Americas, members of the OAS.