Panama City : The Seventh Summit of the Americas will end without a joint declaration due to Venezuela’s demand that it include a condemnation of sanctions the US has imposed on it.
Delegates, including foreign ministers from 35 American countries, met on Thursday ahead of the Summit and agreed that Panama, as the event’s host, should, in lieu of a joint declaration, draft a final report of the meeting, according to Spanish news agency Efe.
That report will clarify any consensus reached at the Summit, convened under the motto “Prosperity with equity”.
Sources at the meeting revealed that officials representing US Secretary of State John Kerry vetoed Venezuela’s demand.
The same sources revealed that Venezuela spoke with the backing of the vast majority of Latin American and Caribbean governments including Cuba, making its debut at the Summit following its rapprochement with the US.
Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Delcy Rodriguez said after the meeting that “we ratify our demand about the need for the decree to be repealed” and added that “all vestiges of colonialism and imperialism existing in the Americas must be eliminated”.
Rodriguez said that as US President Barack Obama had admitted that Venezuela was not a threat to the US, he must now turn his words into actions.
Obama issued an executive order on March 9 declaring Venezuela a national threat to the US and imposing sanctions on some Venezuelan officials.
The White House justified these sanctions by saying they were aimed at persons involved in or responsible for the erosion of human rights and persecution of political opponents in Venezuela.