Blinken accuses Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela of criminalizing journalism

MADRID, 8 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, has accused Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela on Tuesday of criminalizing free journalism, within the framework of the Summit of the Americas that is taking place this week in Los Angeles, United States.

"In Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the simple act of doing independent journalism is a crime," the US Secretary of State assured, pointing to the three countries that US President Joe Biden has excluded from the summit for "not respect democracy", according to the Bloomberg agency.

Blinken has argued that "when independent journalists are attacked, when they are persecuted, when they are imprisoned, when they are attacked in any other way, the chilling effects go far beyond the immediate victims," ​​according to the aforementioned agency.

On the other hand, the Secretary of State has assured that the Biden Administration has financed with 28 million euros some initiatives and news organizations of public interest in "unstable and low-resource environments", and that it will provide up to 8.5 million euros to defend journalists accused of defamation.

The exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas has raised the indignation of other countries that had been invited. In this sense, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, made the decision not to attend the event in protest and accused the United States of "continuing the old policy of interventionism."

For his part, the former president of Bolivia Evo Morales assured that the summit "was born dead" after the decision of the US government.

In this context, Morales pointed out that there are other "brother presidents" who have not attended the forum as a sign of rejection of the "arbitrary and unilateral exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua by the United States."