Summit of the Americas
The Summit of the Americas this week, will be shaped to a large degree by the United States’ new policies towards Cuba, and our government’s sanctions regarding Venezuela.
The United States president will travel to Panama for the summit after stopping off first in Jamaica. President Obama will have a meeting in Jamaica with fourteen heads of the Caribbean nations. This will be the first visit to Jamaica by a US president since 1982
Cuba’s president, Raul Castro, will attend the Summit of the Americas as well. This will be a first for Cuba, as the country was always kept off of the invite list, in deference to the United States. US administration officials announced that Raul Castro and President Obama will probably have some interaction at several of the events, although a formal meeting between the two presidents has not been planned.
The arrival of the US president to the Summit of the Americas, hopefully will be seen as an expansion of it’s relationship with the Americas. Significant progress has been made which includes a reformulation of the US’s relationship with Cuba after 50 years of isolation.
President Obama declared in December of 2014 that the fifty year old policies of isolating Cuba had not been effective and instead were seen as defeating the United States’ efforts in improving it’s relationship with Latin America. During the last part of 2014 and the first several months of 2015, high level meetings have been held in order to open embassies in the two countries, as well as to revamp the exchange of business and commercial goods and travel between Cuba and the United States.
The US had hoped that these negotiations would be seen at the Summit of the Americas as having turned a the page on it’s relationship with Latin America. Unfortunately the United States’ decision to freeze the assets, and revoke the visas of Venezuelan officials who are connected to human rights violations has altered this expectation of an improved relationship. The United States has also decided to declare Venezuela’s a national security threat.
