Chavez: Cuba topped Americas Summit

VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez affirmed that the main subject discussed in the recently-concluded 5th Summit of the Americas was the United States blockade of Cuba.

With different inflections but as an orchestrated whole all the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean continue to demand elimination of the savage blockade of the Cuban people by the United States government, he said.

According to Chavez there is no justification for the economic, trade and financial siege of the island.

It was never justifiable, said the Venezuelan leader during the inauguration of a synthetic wood factory in the municipality of Guacara, in Carabobo state. And I said this in the Americas summit in the presence of all the presidents present, except Raul, Chavez emphasized in reference to the exclusion of Cuba in these hemispheric meetings designed by Washington with the Organization of American States (OAS).

Chavez also criticized the recipes that arose in this forum that tend to maintain the countries of the region dependent on international financial institutions.

He said the International Monetary Fund will not help overcome this situation because that institution is to blame for the economic and social crisis that now affects the planet.

Caracas, Apr 25 (Prensa Latina)