Latin nations object to Obama's Cuba policy

Latin nations object to Obama's Cuba policy

Some delegates to this weekend's Summit of the Americas are threatening to block future meetings if the United States does not allow Cuba to attend.

"All the countries here in Latin American and the Caribbean want Cuba to be present," said Evo Morales, the leftist president of Bolivia. "But the United States won't accept ... It's like a dictatorship."

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos, the host for this year's summit, protested U.S. Cuba policy overall: "The isolation, the embargo, the indifference, looking the other way, have been ineffective."

U.S. officials said they would be glad to have Cuba attend future summits, but the communist country must make essential democratic reforms.

"Cuba is not attending the Summit of the Americas because they are not in line with the democratic charter of the Americas," said Ben Rhodes, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "They have not taken the necessary steps to respect the rights of their own citizens."

Cuba is not the only issue over which Obama has taken heat at the weekend summit in Cartagena, Colombia.

Brazil and other nations have protested the U.S. expansionist monetary policy, flooding de veloping nations with dollars and forcing up the costs of local currencies.

Officials in Mexico and Central and South American say the U.S. has not done enough to curb the demand for illegal drugs in the U.S., calling it a major factor behind the drug wars that have ravaged parts of their countries.

Obama said he opposes one idea -- decriminalization of drugs -- but is willing to listen to arguments for it.

The president also defended U.S. anti-drug efforts.

"We've worked in unprecedented fashion in cooperation with countries like Mexico on not just drugs coming north, but also guns and cash going south," Obama said.