Mexico to urge lifting Cuba trade embargo at Americas summit, FM says

MEXICO CITY - Mexico will press for an end to the "inhumane" decades-old US trade embargo against Cuba during the week-long Summit of the Americas being held in Los Angeles, Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Tuesday.

At a press conference prior to his departure for Los Angeles to participate in the June 6-10 summit, Ebrard said lifting the web of sanctions, which Cuba describes as a financial, economic and trade blockade, stands to be the central theme of the summit.

"We will insist that the blockade is inhumane ... ineffective and has been condemned by all the countries that are going to be at the summit," Ebrard said.

"No country has the right to tell another how to govern itself. The foundation for a new stage in the Americas is mutual respect. It is what we are championing and will champion," he added.

Mexico's position in that regard is consistent with its foreign policy, which calls for non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and respect for self-determination, said Ebrard.

Mexico "has never agreed" with the blockade or the US policy towards the Caribbean island following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, he said.

Ebrard heads Mexico's delegation to the summit as Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declined to attend after Washington excluded Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the regional gathering.

Lopez Obrador wanted the summit to usher in a "new era" in hemispheric relations marked by mutual respect between the United States and Latin American nations.