Bungled Summit of Americas diplomatic nightmare for US

EXCLUSION, ALIENATION

If the United States had any hope of casting itself as a regional leader by playing host, the hope evaporated quickly as "exclusion" became the summit's byword. Closing the door to the above mentioned three countries not only angered them, but also alienated the rest.

"There is not a single reason that justifies the undemocratic and arbitrary exclusion of any country in the hemisphere from that continental event," the Cuban government said in a statement. "What our region demands is cooperation, not exclusion; solidarity, not pettiness; respect, not arrogance; sovereignty and self-determination, not subordination."

The move backfired for Washington as countries rallied around the Caribbean nation and condemned US foreign policy towards the island, Havana said.

"The United States underestimated the support for Cuba in the region, while trying to impose its unilateral and universally rejected policy of hostility towards Cuba, as if it were a consensual position in the hemisphere."

Mexico denounced the exclusion as it exposed Washington's double standards on democracy. On Thursday, Lopez Obrador told reporters that the US hegemonic policy "is an anachronistic, old and unfair policy that must be set aside, and a new stage must be inaugurated in the relationship of all the fraternal peoples and countries of the American continent."

In a column published in the Mexican daily Excelsior, Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who led Mexico's delegation to the summit, wrote that Washington accuses countries of being undemocratic -- the reason the White House gave for not inviting the three countries -- only when it benefits US interests.

"It is not applied equally in all cases, but only in some, when it is convenient," said Ebrard, adding that at the forum, Mexico will press for an end to the "inhumane" decades-old US trade embargo against Cuba.

"No country has the right to tell another how to govern itself. The foundation for a new stage in the Americas is mutual respect. It is what we are championing and will champion," Ebrard added.