Dec. 14, 09 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Latin American Leaders lambasted US government’s frequent interference in Latin American affairs during an important economic summit (ALBA) in Havana.

 

Cuban Leader Raul Castro accused the US of treating Latin America as its own backyard and condemned the US military’s access to Colombian military bases.

 

Also Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez labelled Washington’s criticism about Latin American relationship with Iran as an, ‘imperial offensive’ an ‘overt threat,’ especially to his country and Bolivia.

 

Last Friday, the US Secretary of State, contrary to international conventions, lectured Latin American leaders about their ties with Iran a country in the Middle East. The irony in Clinton’s speech was how could one country, the US in this case, dictate its own agendas on continental Latin America about with whom it should deal and with whom it shouldn’t.

 

The veteran Venezuelan Leader Hugo Chavez, along with Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and Cuba’s Raul Castro are forging closer Latin American bonds which are increasingly independent from US interference in their affairs.

 

One of the strongest signs of closer Latin American bonds is the all important alternative trade summit currently held in Havana. A regional political and economic bloc, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (Alba), forged five years ago as a counter measure to America's free trade policies in the region. Historically, the Americans have been having an easy time sacking Latin America’s enormous natural resources. 

 

During the ALBA summit in Havana, the Cuban Leader also accused The US government’s support for the military coup in Honduras that ousted Jose Manuel Zelaya the country’s legitimate President in June this year.  Cuban leader said ‘The people of that Latin American nation have had their constitutional rights denied and a usurper government has been imposed with the support of the North American [US] administration, which they've attempted to legitimize with an electoral farce.’

 

Castro expressed his disbelief at the absence of the Honduran President Zelaya at the summit. The military coup leaders in Honduras prevented Manuel Zelaya from leaving Honduras to attend the ALBA summit in Cuba.

 

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