The sixth Summit of the Americas ( es, VI Cumbre de las Américas, links=no) was held at
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...
, on April 14–15, 2012. The central theme of the summit was "Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity." The main issues at the summit's agenda was the exclusion of Cuba, the
legalisation of drugs to fight the
War on Drugs
The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...
and Argentina's sovereignty claims over the
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...
. Additionally, criticism of an expansionist monetary policy was also leveled on the developed economies. A final statement was not forthcoming over the issue of Cuba's inclusion in the next summit which was supported by all states except the United States and Canada. Panama was chosen to host the
7th Summit of the Americas.
Background
The
Summits of the Americas
The Summit of the Americas (SOA) is an international summit meeting that brings together the leaders of countries in the Organization of American States (OAS). Cuba was expelled from the OAS under pressure from the United States after the Cuban Re ...
are a continuing series of summits bringing together the leaders of the Americas including North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America, except Cuba. The function of these summits is to foster discussion of a variety of issues affecting the western hemisphere. In the early 1990s, what were formerly ''ad hoc'' summits came to be institutionalised into a regular "Summits of the Americas" conference programme.
[Twaddle, Andrew C. (2002)]
''Health Care Reform Around the World,'' p. 382.
/ref>
In regards to a potential controversy sparked by boycotts over the exclusion of Cuba, host president Santos flew to Cuba where he got assurances from Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (; ; born 3 June 1931) is a retired Cuban politician and general who served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the one-party communist state, from 2011 to 2021, succeedi ...
that the country would not insist on attendance that could have embarrassed Colombia.
Agenda
The host president Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
An economist by profession and a journalist by trade, ...
said of the expectations for the summit that "if the United States realises its long-term strategic interests are not in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but in Latin America...there will be great results." He also said that the issue of Cuba was one matter that would be discussed. U.S. President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
said the Cuban issue was moot to the U.S. claiming that the government of Cuba
Cuba has had a socialist political system since 1959 based on the "one state – one party" principle. Cuba is constitutionally defined as a Marxist–Leninist state. The present Constitution of Cuba, which was passed in a 2019 referendum, also ...
has "shown no interest in changing their relationship with the United States, nor any willingness to respect the democratic and human rights of the Cuban people." The U.S. and Canada cited a clause in the OAS charter that only includes democratically elected governments for their decisions not to invite Cuba. Another important issue would be the War on Drugs
The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...
amid U.S. allies Guatemala and Colombia calling for the legalisation of drugs, with Mexico also calling for at least a debate; a move the United States rejects with Obama saying before the summit that the U.S. would not support the measure to "legalise or decriminalise drugs because doing so would have serious negative consequences in all our countries in terms of public health and safety." Host Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín
María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar (born 13 November 1963) is a Colombian politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. She has also served as the 25th Permanent Representative of Colombia to ...
said that the exclusion of Cuba and the Cuban blockade
The United States embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses organized under U.S. law or majority-owned by American citizens, from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern hist ...
would be brought up by several countries including Argentina, Nicaragua and Peru.
The ongoing crisis and "war of words" between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...
, which has also resulted in a ban on marine vessels entering ports in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay if they are coming from the islands and controversy over the "militarisation" of the conflict, was also said to be a point of discussion. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro
Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019.
Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...
said that "there should not be colonial possessions in our America." Argentinean Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said he hoped the summit would result in a "new manifestation of solidarity" over the dispute of the islands. Out of the 34 countries present at the summit the positions of two of them, Canada (opposed) and the U.S. (neutral), prevented the achievement of a joint statement supporting Argentina's claim over the Falklands.
Discussions
The discussions at the summit included Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first w ...
's criticism of U.S. expansionist monetary policy that she said was contributing to uncontrolled capital inflows causing emerging market currencies to appreciate and would hurt trade competitiveness. "The way these countries, the most developed ones, especially in the euro region in the last year, have reacted to the crisis with monetary expansion has produced a monetary tsunami. Obviously we have to take measures to defend ourselves. Note the word I chose - 'defend', not 'protect.'" Santos reiterated the criticism saying that "in some way, hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
are exporting their crisis to us via the appreciation of our currencies." He also opened the summit with the issue of Cuba: "It's an anachronism that keeps us anchored to a Cold War era we came out of various decades ago. nother summit without Cuba isunacceptable." He also accused those who opposed Cuba inclusion as having "ideological stubbornness", as well as saying Haiti "on its knees is unacceptable." Only two countries dissented over the inclusion of Cuba, while the member states of ALBA even said that a summit without Cuba was "unjustified and unsustainable" and that they would boycott summits without Cuba. For his part, despite saying, the United States wanted to work "as equal partners with our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean" because of the potential for trade between "nearly a billion consumers", Obama dismissed a possibility of reform on the United States' Cuba policy and drug legalisation:
Sometimes those controversies date back to before I was born. And sometimes I feel as if ... we're caught in a time warp ... going back to the 1950s, gunboat diplomacy, and Yankees, and the Cold War and this and that. I don't mind a debate around issues like decriminalisation. I personally don't agree that's a solution to the problem. But I think that given the pressures that a lot of governments are under here, under-resourced, overwhelmed by violence, it's completely understandable that they would look for new approaches, and we want to cooperate with them.
Guatemala's Otto Pérez Molina
Otto Fernando Pérez Molina (born 1 December 1950) is a Guatemalan politician and retired general, who was President of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015. Standing as the Patriotic Party (Guatemala), Patriotic Party (''Partido Patriota'') candidate, ...
worked with Honduras' Porfirio Lobo
Porfirio Lobo Sosa (born 22 December 1947), known as Pepe Lobo, is a Honduran politician and agricultural landowner who served as President of Honduras from 2010 to 2014. A member of the conservative National Party and a former deputy in th ...
and Costa Rica's Laura Chinchilla
Laura Chinchilla Miranda (; born 28 March 1959) is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was the ...
to cover ground over the legalisation of drugs. Panama's Ricardo Martinelli
Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal (born March 11, 1951) is a Panamanian politician and businessman who was the 36th President of Panama, president of Panama from 2009 to 2014.
Early life
Born in Panama City, Ricardo Martinelli is the son ...
was also said to be open to the idea, though Nicaragua and El Salvador (Nicaragua who together with Honduras boycotted a summit called by Guatemala to discuss the issue) were opposed to it.
Lobo also added that Central American foreign ministers would meet on 14 April to discuss Chinchilla's proposal for a "complete review" of the Central America's regional security strategy her government sanction in 2011. The meeting was also attended by the host president, Santos, and Mexico's Felipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (; born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican politician who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 1 December 2006 to 30 November 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 a ...
. Santos and Calderon also said that they would discuss the issue of public safety as a result of the War on Drugs
The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...
.
Caribbean countries, including Saint Lucia, raised the matter of the proliferation of arms such as light weapons.
Reactions and other events
Bilateral meetings at the summit included those between the United States and Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina and Peru.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said of Obama that his inner circle of advisers deliberately ensure that he is kept ignorant of the regional reality and that it was distasteful to Latin Americans that he visited Cartagena. He added: "Unfortunately, after three years in office he has inherited the cynicism and perversion of his predecessor."
Cuban response
While Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega held a solidarity rally with Cuba in Managua, Cuba's Ambassador to Nicaragua Eduardo Martinez Borbonet said his country was appreciative of Nicaragua's solidarity with the "legitimate rights" of Cuba. He also criticised the summit as "incomplete" and that it proved the U.S. failed to isolate Cuba. He further suggested that Ortega prove that there was a lack of transparency about the summit after the Obama Administration
Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
offered no new change to policy while trying to "conceal" the unanimous support for Cuba amongst CELAC countries, saying of Obama's summit speech that he was "an intelligent man, but he failed to behave as a statesman by avoiding issues like Cuba and the Argentinian claim of sovereignty over the illegally seized Falklands." According to him, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, despite ideological differences, came together in defense of their national interests. "Unless the U.S. really understands Latin America and the Caribbean, there would be no restructuring of a new approach in relations among equals, as promised by Obama, because we demand respect."
Conclusions
Argentina's Hector Timerman, who was not at the summit, said that a declaration from the summit was held up over the inclusion of Cuba that was supported by 32 countries but opposed by the U.S. He added that "there will be no final declaration of the summit because the United States vetoed the articles about Cuba, a veto that Canada joined." Canada's Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
was, however, reportedly considering a final declaration that would include calls for the reincorporation of Cuba without conditions, albeit with their reservations. The ALBA member states also said they would boycott any future summits without the inclusion of Cuba. Argentina and Uruguay's foreign ministers also said that they would not sign a declaration without the U.S. and Canada's veto of Cuban participation withdrawn. Colombia and Brazil also reiterated comments that there would not be a summit anymore without Cuba.
At the close of the summit at about noon on 15 April, Santos said: "There is no declaration because there is no consensus. Hopefully within three years we can have Cuba." However, he added that the 7th Summit of the Americas in 2015 would be held in Panama. Honduras' Porfirio Lobo also said that "there is no consensus yet. We must make a diagnosis, see what alternative we can find to what is being done."
Santos also outlined five mandates which, he said, came out of the summit:
# Mitigate the adverse effect of natural disasters.
# Security issues in order to combat violence, corruption and transnational organised crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
.
# Infrastructure development by enhancing projects in order to establish hemisphere-wide road, rail, and electrical networks.
# Information and communication technologies to be enhanced in the spheres of education, healthcare, innovation, entrepreneurship, productivity, competitiveness and the rise of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
# Importantly, to eradicate poverty by "establishing inclusive social policies that foster decent, dignified, and productive employment will be the priority for the region."
Security issues
The day before the summit two explosions occurred in Bogotá near the U.S. embassy at about 19:30 and two other explosions followed in Cartagena.
U.S. security misconduct
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...
personnel, who were in the country to protect the president, brought prostitutes into their hotel before the president arrived. Though Colombian police said that five people were involved, a preliminary investigation by the United States Southern Command
The United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), located in Doral, Florida, Doral, Florida in Greater Miami, is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingen ...
suggested that 11 people could have been involved. They also had their top-secret security clearances revoked, had to turn in their agency-issued BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
s, were sent back from the summit and placed on administrative leave. The decision to send the agents back to the United States was initiated by the head of the Secret Service's field office in Miami, Paula Reid, who served as liaison between the Secret Service, local governments and other U.S. agencies involved in preparing for President Obama's visit to Colombia, after she received rumours of an unpaid prostitute knocking on doors and yelling in the hallway of a neighbouring hotel.
According to ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, some Secret Service personnel are now also under investigation for possible drug use in Colombia. The Secret Service is expected to conduct polygraph examinations with the agents involved in the scandal, which also allegedly involves at least 10 members of the U.S. military who were working in a support role. Three of the agents were said to be leaving the agency. The agency's Assistant Director Paul Morrissey said that "although the Secret Service's investigation into allegations of misconduct by its employees in Cartagena, Colombia, is in its early stages, and is still ongoing, three of the individuals involved will separate or are in the process of separating from the agency" and add that one supervisor would take early retirement while another was sacked and a third had already resigned. Obama said that he would be "angry" if the reports are true after being briefed by the Secret Service director Mark Sullivan, Morrissey announced that three more agents had chosen to resign, while another agent was implicated as part of the scandal. The United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
also said that it was investigating suspects from all branches of the military: six suspects from the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
's 7th Special Forces Group
The 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (7th SFG) (A) is an operational unit of the United States Army Special Forces activated on 20 May 1960. It was reorganized from the 77th Special Forces Group, which was also stationed at Fort Bragg, North ...
; two people from the United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
; two people from the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
; and another from the United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
over misconduct. A U.S. Air Force colonel was sent to Colombia to review the case and obtain evidence before returning to interview the suspects.
As of 24 April 2012, 12 Secret Service Agents, among them two supervisors, are involved in the controversy, six of them have lost their jobs and six other are on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, 12 United States Armed Forces members, whose security clearances have been suspended by the Pentagon, are under investigation by the U.S. military and about 20 Colombian women are suspected of having spent the night with members of the Secret Service at the Hotel Caribe. The military personnel under investigation, some of them have violated a curfew, would face a "fair, thorough and complete investigation", according to a spokesman for the Southern Command Col. Scott Malcom and could, in case of soliciting prostitutes, face a year of confinement, dishonourable discharge and/or loss of pay and benefits. The Secret Service declared that only three of the 12 implicated agents would stay with the agency. Of the three agents remaining with the Secret Service, one had been stripped of his security clearance and the other two cleared of wrongdoing. Of the other nine agents leaving the Secret Service, one has retired, two have been dismissed, and six have resigned.
Obama reacted to the initial news saying that he would like to see a "rigorous" investigation and that "if it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course I'll be angry. We are representing the people of the United States, and when we travel to another country, I expect us to observe the highest standards." Obama later praised Secret Service agents as "incredible"; on ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon.[ About pag ...](_blank)
'', he said "they protect me, they protect our girls. A couple of knuckleheads shouldn’t detract from what they do. What they were thinking, I don’t know. That's why they’re not there anymore." Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is an American Democratic Party politician who has served in several different public office positions, including Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of ...
said: "We let the boss down because nobody's talking about what went on in Colombia other than this incident. I can speak for myself and my fellow chiefs, we're embarrassed by what occurred in Colombia." He added that the head of the Southern Command General Douglas Fraser
Douglas Andrew Fraser (December 18, 1916 – February 23, 2008) was a Scottish - American union leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983 and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University for ma ...
had started an investigation of the issue; he expressed his "disappointent
Ents are a species of beings in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world Middle-earth who closely resemble trees; their leader is Treebeard of Fangorn forest. Their name is derived from an Old English word for giant.
The Ents appear in ''The Lord of ...
by the entire incident and that this behaviour is not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military." The chairman of the joint-chiefs-of-staff, General Martin Dempsey
Martin “Marty” Edward Dempsey (born March 14, 1952), is a retired United States Army general who served as the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2011 until September 25, 2015. He previously served as the 37th chief o ...
, also added that Obama had been let down as a result of this distraction. Senator Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maine. A member of the Republican Party, she has held her seat since 1997 and is Maine's longest-serving member of Co ...
, the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is the chief oversight committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland s ...
added: "I am having a call this evening with the director of the Secret Service, because I find this to be so appalling. I can't help but think what if the women involved had been spies, what if they had been members of a drug cartel, what if they had planted equipment or eavesdropping devices?" She also said that Sullivan had told her that "the most important quality for a Secret Service officer is character. If the facts prove to be as reported on this, this is an incredible lack of character and breach of security, and potentially extremely serious." White House spokesman Jay Carney
James Ferguson 'Jay' Carney (born May 22, 1965) is an American public relations officer, political advisor and journalist who has served as Amazon's Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs from 2015 to 2022, and the United States Whit ...
added that "Sullivan acted quickly in response to this incident, and he's overseeing an investigation as we speak. This incident needs to be investigated, and it is being investigated. We need to see what the investigation reveals. We’re not going to speculate about the conclusions it might reach." On 25 April, United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...
Secretary Janet Napolitano
Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and university administrator who served as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and third United States secretary of homeland security from 2009 to 20 ...
testified in a Senate hearing on the activities of the Homeland Security Department which oversees the Secret Service. Napolitano stated during her hearing that the Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility had received no complaints of misconduct similar to what happened in Cartagena over the past two-and-a-half years, expressed her confidence in Secret Service director Mark J. Sullivan
Mark J. Sullivan is a former federal law enforcement agent who served as the 22nd Director of the United States Secret Service from May 31, 2006, to March 27, 2013. Sullivan succeeded W. Ralph Basham and was succeeded by Julia Pierson.
Early ...
, called the allegations against the implicated agents "inexcusable" and promised a thorough investigation by saying: "We will leave no stone unturned." Cartagena's residents were at first amused about the controversy, but the attitude later changed when it was perceived that the controversy cast a shadow on Colombia's image as a prosperous and peaceful country.
One of the women involved in the controversy, Dania Londono Suarez, later told the media about the events. She said that she was introduced to the Secret Service agent with whom she spent the night by a friend at the bar. The agent then agreed to her services for US$800 at his hotel. The next morning she claimed the agent refused to pay her and instead told her to leave the room. With the help of two other Secret Service agents she said that she tried to resolve the matter, but her client refused to open the door. After approximately 10:00, she gave up and left the hotel before a police officer encouraged her to share the matter. Suarez told '' W Radio'' that three Secret Service agents eventually paid her the money she was owed; however, she also added that if she had known that the men were Secret Service agents she would not have told the police about the incident. She also said she did not see any confidential information in regards to Obama's visit. Though she did say that she could have stolen sensitive material given the circumstance that the agent she spent the night with fell asleep. She added: "If I was a terrorist I would have been able to do a thousand things."
As a consequence of the incident, the Secret Service imposed new rules for its employees. The changes prohibit agents from visiting "non-reputable establishments" or consuming alcohol ten hours before starting work. Additionally, they restrict who is allowed into hotel rooms.
An investigation by the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General concluded, in September 2012, that 13 agency staffers had "personal encounters" with local women during the summit. Three of the women did not ask for money, five asked for money and were paid, four asked for money which was refused, and one asked for money and was paid after requesting police assistance to collect.
During the investigation, an agent involved in the scandal raised concerns that the Secret Service was not consistent in its enforcement of its administrative rules, including a rule requiring agents to report any romantic relationships with foreign nationals. Special agent Rafael Prieto, assigned to President Barack Obama's security detail, admitted to investigators that he had been involved a long-term affair with a woman from Mexico; following the admission, Prieto, a married father, was found dead in an apparent suicide. According to BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, "it is not thought that he had compromised national security with his relationship, but rather violated the agency's own administrative rules by failing to disclose it."
Heads of State and Government
Ecuador did not attend the summit because of the exclusion of Cuba and other "essential issues." President Rafael Correa
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (; born 6 April 1963), known as Rafael Correa, is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation ...
wrote a letter to the host Juan Manual Santos that read: "After some reflection I have decided that while I am the president of Ecuador, I will not attend any Summit of the Americas until it begins to make the decisions required. There has been talk of lack of consensus, but we all know that this is the veto of foreign powers, the intolerable situation in our 21st century America." He also reiterated that the boycott was not a slight on Colombia or Santos. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega
José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguans, Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as coordinator of the ...
was also absent from the summit over the issue of Cuba's exclusion saying: "It's not a favor anyone would be doing to Cuba. It's a right they've had taken away from them." El Salvador's Mauricio Funes
Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (born 18 October 1959) is a Salvadoran politician and former journalist who served as President of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 Salvadoran presidential election, 2009 presidential election as ...
was also absent. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
ridiculed the summit for not featuring Cuba saying: "If the United States and Canada, refuse to discuss issues so profoundly unifying in Latin America like the issue of Cuba, the solidarity with Cuba or the issue of the Malvinas Islands, why else have the Summit of the Americas?" Bolivian President Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to co ...
said that "we have arrived with the conviction that this must be the last summit without Cuba." Haitian President Michel Martelly
Michel Joseph Martelly (; born 12 February 1961) is a Haitian musician and politician who was the President of Haiti from May 2011 until February 2016. He was sanctioned by the Canadian Government for his involvement in human rights violations ...
was also absent because of medical issues, but he was represented by Foreign Minister Laurent Lamothe
Laurent Salvador Lamothe (born 14 August 1972) is a Haitian businessman, technology entrepreneur, and political figure who has served in the government of Haiti as Foreign Minister since October 2011, then appointed as Prime Minister on 4 May 20 ...
.
Due to illness, Chávez was unsure if he would attend the summit. Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner
Cristina is a female given name, and it is also a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Given name
*Cristina (daughter of Edward the Exile), 11th-century English princess
*Cristina (singer), Cristina Monet-Palaci (1956–2020), American s ...
left in the morning of 15 April, before the summit was officially closed. Morales also left early after having said on 14 April that "all the countries here in Latin American and the Caribbean want Cuba to be present. But the United States won't accept t It's like a dictatorship."
Apolitical reactions
Alex Main of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is a progressive American think tank that specializes in economic policy. Based in Washington, D.C. CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999.
Considered a left-lea ...
suggested that Obama's claims in the 5th Summit of the Americas
The Fifth Summit of the Americas (VSOA) was held at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, on April 17–19, 2009.
Organizers planned for the Fifth Summit to focus on a wide-ranging theme: "Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prospe ...
to start a "new chapter" in the United States' hemispheric relations would be undone by following the past practices of his predecessor George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
as he could call on the Colombian and Panamanian free trade agreement
A free-trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral trade agreements occur ...
and offer reform to Cuba–United States relations
Cuba and the United States restored diplomacy, diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015. Relations had been severed in 1961 during the Cold War. U.S. diplomatic representation in Cuba is handled by the Embassy of the United States, Havana, United ...
, including having the country participate at the next summit. He also suggested other governments in Central America, led by the right-winged government of Guatemala's Otto Pérez Molina
Otto Fernando Pérez Molina (born 1 December 1950) is a Guatemalan politician and retired general, who was President of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015. Standing as the Patriotic Party (Guatemala), Patriotic Party (''Partido Patriota'') candidate, ...
, would call for a debate on the legalisation of drugs in a bid to stem the tide in the War on Drugs, which would be a difficult prospect for a U.S. president facing an election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
. He concluded in saying that there could be a firmer view that the "Summit of the Americas has become an archaic instrument of US policy" due to the lack of reform in the U.S.' direction in hemispheric relations whereas the rest of the region has moved towards Latin American integration
The integration of Latin America has a history going back to Spanish American and Brazilian independence, when there was discussion of creating a regional state or confederation of Latin American nations to protect the area's newly won autonomy. ...
with such moves as the formation of multilateral bodies such as Mercosur
The Southern Common Market, commonly known by Spanish abbreviation Mercosur, and Portuguese Mercosul, is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Argentina ...
, ALBA
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scottish people, Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed i ...
, UNASUR and CELAC to counteract the OAS in its exclusion of the United States and Canada. Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is a United States non-governmental organization (NGO) whose stated goal is to promote human rights, democracy, and social and economic justice in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Washington Offic ...
said of the waning influence of the summit that "the label 'Americas' doesn't seem to mean that much anymore unless you're a cartographer."
Sideline summits
For the first time a C.E.O. Summit from companies in the hemisphere was held alongside the summit. In addition a Social Forum was also held for people from "diverse social organisations."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Summit Of The Americas 2012
Organization of American States
Politics of the Americas
21st-century diplomatic conferences
2012 conferences
Conflicts in 2012
2012 in international relations
2012 in North America
2012 in South America
2012 in Colombia
Economy of Colombia
6
Diplomatic conferences in Colombia
April 2012 events in South America