Cuban President Calls for Greater Integration of Americas… But Not U.S.

Says region should strive for new "international cooperation paradigm" without United States

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President Raul Castro of Cuba wants to throw a party and invite all the countries in North and South America—except the United States and Canada.

In his keynote address at the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit on Tuesday, Castro said that regional governments should establish a new “international cooperation paradigm,” the Associated Press reports. Calling CELAC “the legitimate representative” of Latin American and Caribbean interests, Castro called for collaboration on a range of issues, including the fight against climate change. He also expressed support for Argentina’s territorial claims to the Falkand Islands and opposition to the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba.

CELAC was created in 2011 as an alternative to the Organization of American States, the Washington-based club of nations that booted Cuba after Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1962.

[AP]