Interview: Trying to bar Venezuela "weakens" Americas Summit

CARACAS, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The attempt to exclude Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from the upcoming Summit of the Americas only serves to "weaken" the summit, according to one analyst.

"The fact that today there is an attempt to isolate Venezuela from the 8th Summit of the Americas, far from weakening Venezuela, what it does is weaken the summit itself," said Tony Boza, an economist and political observer, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

This year's summit is scheduled for April 13 and 14 in Peru's capital Lima.

With Venezuela and the United States at loggerheads, Peru's Foreign Affairs Minister Cayetana Aljovin recently announced that her country was withdrawing Maduro's invitation to participate in the gathering.

Organized by the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS), the summit periodically gathers leaders from throughout the Western hemisphere, but has traditionally shunned those at odds with the White House, most famously Cuba.

Boza pointed out that dis-inviting Maduro, who has announced his plan to attend the summit, "is something that is going to weaken the OAS" by exposing Washington's regional ambitions.

The dispute is bound to "reveal what the true intentions (of the United States and its regional allies) are towards our country" and Latin America in general, the Venezuelan analyst said.

Their ultimate goal is "to not allow Venezuela to be autonomous, to not allow us to have self-determination, to prevent the vigorous democratic processes that we have been undergoing in the past 20 years," Boza said.

Maduro has received support from regional allies, namely the member countries of the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), such as Bolivia, Ecuador, and some island nations in the Caribbean.

On Monday, the ALBA members signed a declaration in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, defending "Venezuela's right to participate" in the summit and pledging to "take diplomatic and political measures to guarantee it."

"We believe this summit should be a meeting point for all the countries on the continent, and a venue where we can all express our ideas, build consensus, disagree and debate, with respect for diversity," the declaration stated.

Boza said the show of solidarity provided Venezuela "the chance to put forward our vision, our grasp of the problem, which is ... the permanent interference of the United States in the internal politics of our country."

Venezuela's Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez on Tuesday confirmed Maduro will be attending the summit.

Maduro will be vying against four other presidential hopefuls as he runs for re-election in May as the candidate of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Enditem