The meeting is held at the Jose Marti National Library, and denounce the intensification of the aggressive policies and the discrediting campaigns against the island, said Norma Goicochea, president of the Cuban Association of the United Nations (ACNU), the convening organization.

The issues of the Forum coincide with those of the 9th Summit of the Americas, scheduled to be held in the US city of Los Angeles on June 6-10, to which Cuba is not invited.

Washington also denied visas to the representatives of the Cuban civil society who were to participate in the People’s Summit for Democracy, to be held parallel to the hemispheric meeting convened in the Californian city.

The US decision to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua has generated criticism and caused that several governments announced their absence at the meeting if the United States insists on this claim.

According to Goicochea, Cuba has much to contribute to the issues to be discussed in that forum, so she denounced the farce of approving a regional health plan without taking the island into account.

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