Cuba Banned from Summit Due to U.S. Pressure

The Dominican Republic announced (in Spanish) last week that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua would not be invited to the Summit of the Americas in December, which it is hosting, due to the “current context of political polarization.”

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the decision (in Spanish) on the “brutal and unilateral pressure” from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Since becoming the U.S.’s top diplomat, Rubio has ramped up pressure on Cuba, targeting its medical cooperation programs and other sources of foreign currency. In February, he labeled Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua “enemies of humanity.”

The Summit of the Americas has been held every three years since 1994 by the Organization of American States. Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962, while Venezuela and Nicaragua withdrew from the organization in 2019 and 2021, respectively. All three have participated in the summit in the past.

The Biden administration also refused to invite Cuba to the 2022 Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, triggering a boycott from several Latin American leaders, including the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia and Peru.

“It’s difficult to imagine that this year’s exclusion of Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba from the Summit will provoke the kind of protest seen in 2022," Francesca Emanuele, an expert on the OAS at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Lee Schlenker in an article in Responsible Statecraft. “The Trump administration’s economic threats and coercive measures have spread fear throughout the region.”