Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that Venezuela will vote against the Declaration of Port-of-Spain, the final declaration of the Summit of the Americas in a gesture of protest against the US. The summit, which begins today in Port-of-Spain, brings together all 34 members of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

But Chavez said it reinforces a US foreign policy that treats the rest of Latin America as subservient to Washington’s interests. The declaration is to be signed by all 34 leaders on Sunday at the end of their deliberations. But Chavez said Venezuela and “other countries” will veto the declaration. “Venezuela is vetoing the (final) declaration (of the Summit of the Americas) right now...We do not agree with the declaration, just like other countries,” Chavez said, according to a report in Venezuela’s El Universal newspaper.

“We do not have great expectations about the Summit of the Americas. The final declaration is hard to digest. It is misplaced both in time and space, as if time had stopped,” El Universal quoted Chávez as saying. Chavez was speaking upon his arrival in the city of Cumaná, Sucre State, in east Venezuela, to preside over the Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). He said the leaders of ALBA were meeting to “prepare the ammunition” that they will take to the summit.

The socialist leader said Cuba should not be excluded from the summit. He said a new hemispheric group that did not give the US such power should be created to replace the OAS. The US pays more than 70 per cent of the OAS budget, which affords it certain privileges in the organisation. All decisions by the OAS were by consensus. Chavez welcomed his closest Latin American allies for talks aimed at demonstrating a united front ahead of their first encounter with US President Barack Obama, at the summit.

The allies are demanding the US further soften its sanctions against Cuba and that the island should not be left out of regional summits. “Why does Cuba continue to be mistreated?” Chavez said after warmly greeting Cuban leader, Raul Castro, at the airport. “We can’t accept it.” “I hope the president of the US is going to listen” at the summit, Chavez said. Castro recalled Cuba’s victory against an invasion of US-backed exiles at the Bay of Pigs and said: “We are going to continue fighting.”

Chavez added that the Americas Summit “continues representing the Monroe Doctrine: America for the Americans,” a reference to a principle of American policy initially declared in the 19th century to oppose European expansion but which has been used subsequently to back US intervention in the Western Hemisphere. Joking with Castro, Chavez told the Cuban leader: “Go swimming and you’ll reach Trinidad,” which is located roughly 185 miles (300 kilometres) west of the seaside city of Cumana.

Venezuela and other members of ALBA, also plan to move away from the US dollar by establishing a common currency—the Sucre—for trade purposes. “The Sucre will be born here today as a liberating monetary system,” he said, adding that the system would be effective as of January 1, 2010, “not only in the member countries of ALBA, but also in other nations that are interested in the Sucre, such as Ecuador and Paraguay.” (AP)