Honduran President Xiomara Castro will not attend the Summit of the Americas taking place in Los Angeles, California, as confirmed to CNN by the presidential contact team.
On behalf of Castro, a delegation headed by Foreign Minister Enrique Reina and Special Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, Hector Zelaya, Castro’s son, will attend.
On May 28, Castro posted on his Twitter account that he would only attend the summit if “all the countries of the Americas, without exception” are invited.
A senior US official confirmed to CNN Monday that the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela will not be invited to the summit due to the lack of democratic spaces and human rights situations in those countries. The official said the organizing countries have broad discretion to decide who to invite.
Various sectors of Honduras view with concern Castro’s failure to attend the summit, given the relationship he forged months before taking office with the US government which was reinforced by the visit during his January 27 inauguration of Vice President. Kamala Harris.
Salvador Nasrallah, Honduran presidential candidate, said on Twitter on Sunday that Castro’s “political decision” not to attend the summit was “an opportunity for the country to lose.”