Excluding countries from Summit of Americas goes against history, future, says Mexican FM

MEXICO CITY, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The exclusion of countries from multilateral forums based on political differences, such as what the United States did at the recent Summit of the Americas, constitutes an "unsustainable" position that goes "against history and the future," Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Friday.

In an article in the newspaper Reforma, Ebrard reiterated Mexico's rejection of the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the meeting held in the U.S. city of Los Angeles earlier this month, and defended President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's refusal to attend as a form of protest.

The article was in direct response to one published on Thursday in the same paper by U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, who criticized Lopez Obrador's absence and called it a mistake to defend the excluded governments.

"The president believes in inclusion and plurality, where different points of view are heard and weighed among sovereign and equal nations," said the Mexican official.

He added that Lopez Obrador's absence and the objection of the exclusion at the summit "sent a powerful message in favor of inclusion," an idea "widely supported in the Americas and not just a Mexican whim."

"We do not accept the principle of intervention or unilateral decisions to decide who is American and who is not at a summit of the entire region," said Ebrard, while reiterating Mexico's rejection of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

The foreign minister emphasized Mexico's message that it is time for "an inter-American system based on respect, equal treatment and the common good, a Pan-American design for the 21st century."