9th Summit of the Americas: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed to justify the presence of Ariel Henry despite the many crimes committed during his reign and his alleged involvement in the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise.
It is the notorious surprise for the U.S. Secretary of State who was forced to justify the decision of the Biden administration to invite the de facto Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry while democratically elected leaders in other countries have not been invited to this event traditionally gathering all heads of state and government of the continent.
When asked by a journalist to justify the invitation of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry of Haiti, who has no legitimate mandate and is suspected of involvement in serious crimes, Antony Blinken was rather evasive, stating that “We (the U.S. administration) will have many opportunities, I think, in the coming days, to talk about the participation in the summit, who is here, who is not”.
He added that in Haiti, “we continue to work for a transition that leads to proper elections that are supported by all the Haitian people,” he said. “We continue to work to address the gang violence that is plaguing the country and doing terrible damage to the Haitian people. We continue to work to try to find ways to support the Haitian people, who have endured more than their share of turmoil in recent years, both human and naturally manufactured,” Antony Blinken responded.
”So in all these ways, we are working, including with partners in our hemisphere, trying to support the Haitian people. But we want them to have a truly representative government, and that’s going to come in the next elections that will be held in the country very soon,” he added.
It must be said that the U.S. Secretary of State did not have an easy time of it with rather direct reminders of the refusal of Prime Minister Henry to negotiate with civil society, stressing once again that he governs without a constitutional mandate and is “involved in many crimes, including potentially the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise.
You yourself said in your speech today and in your previous statements that countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua that you mentioned are excluded from the Summit of the Americas because you consider them undemocratic?
But how can you use that as a justification when you have a so-called prime minister who does not govern under any democratic mandate in a country where journalists and protesters are repressed?
Again, we, like many other countries, are determined to get to the facts of what happened in Haiti, including the assassination of the former prime minister. We are determined to find the facts wherever they lead and to whomever they lead,” replied Antony Blinken, who apparently did not expect these rather uncomfortable questions.
On the non-invitation of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles Bilken plays the diplomatic card answering “I can also tell you that Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua are here. I have seen them. I have met with them. I have met with leaders and civil society activists from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
To drive the point home, the diplomat noted that there will be people from NGOs, from different parts of these societies, who frankly he says will be more representative of the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan people than the regimes that are in place right now, and they have a large part of the summit. I have already met with a number of them, he concluded.
Already the U.S. Secretary of State said he believes the summit will be a success, with the participation of more than 60 delegations, more than 23 heads of government or heads of state, not to mention the participation of representatives of civil society, youth, media, the business community to meet here in Los Angeles over the next three days he said.
Note that the President of Mexico, neighbor of the United States, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, decided last Monday to boycott the Summit of the Americas following the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
“I am not going to the summit because not all the countries of the Americas are invited. I believe in the need to change the policy that has been imposed for centuries: exclusion,” he said at a press conference.