Critics to Correa due to his Decision of not Attending the Summit of the Americas

Two newspapers in Peru and Venezuela yesterday devoted their editorial to examine the decision of President Rafael Correa, of not attending the Summit of the Americas in Colombia.

El Comercio from Lima and El Nacional from Caracas assessed the decision made by Correa, who in February raised his allies not to go to the continental meeting if Cuba was not invited, but his idea got no support.

Democracia a correazos (“democracy with a beating”) was the headline of the leading newspaper publisher’s central Peru. In its content, Ecuador morning has been questioned sympathized with the government in Havana. “Invite to a summit a dictatorship in which there has been no free elections or with more options than the government party in half a century, is like inviting the kidnapper of a family to the neighborhood council building in which this live,” it says.

In essence, El National remembered that the Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santos, host of the continental meeting, made vain efforts in trying to persuade the President. And condemned the letter of the head of Ecuador to Colombia, in which he said he will not return to a Summit of the Americas until decisions are made in the way Patria Grande “requires to us.” The newspaper described some actions of the government of Quito, saying “it is on its way to autocracy.”

The U.S. government disowned yesterday Correa’s announcement about not to attend the Summit of the Americas, by merely noting that it is a personal decision. “It’s his own decision,” said deputy spokesman of the State Department, Mark Toner, according to DPA. (FL)