Venezuelans decry exclusion from Americas summit at 'anti-imperialist forums'

CARACAS -- Venezuelans on Wednesday spoke out at "anti-imperialist forums" to voice their opposition to select countries being excluded from this week's Summit of the Americas in the US city of Los Angeles.

"It's everyone or it's not of the Americas," a legislator from the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Pedro Infante, said at a forum held in the capital Caracas.

Washington's decision to exclude Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua from the regional gathering was opposed by other countries on the continent, noted Infante, adding that several presidents of regional countries declined to attend "to protest the discrimination" by Washington.

Carlos Casanueva of the Bolivarian Continental Movement, a civic organization, told Xinhua the forums have been organized since Monday at public plazas around the country, "mainly in repudiation" of the exclusion.

Carleslia Ascanio, who attended the forum in Caracas, told Xinhua the anti-imperialist forums offered the public a space for debate and "battle of ideas."

Given the US decision to exclude the three countries, Ascanio said there was support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's proposal to convene a Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, to which the United States government would be invited.