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Venezuela's Maduro blasts Summit of Americas for "intolerance"

  CARACAS, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday blasted the "ideological and political intolerance" of the eighth Summit of the Americas, which took place on Friday and Saturday in Lima, Peru.

  "The Lima Summit was the beginning of the end of the Summit of the Americas," he added from the presidential palace in Caracas where he had met with Bolivian President Evo Morales.

  Maduro, who was not invited to the Summit, said that certain Latin American governments had broken dialogue by refusing to embrace diverse points of view.

  "When the left-wing governments were the majority in the region, we maintained a dialogue of diversity with right-wing governments," said Maduro.

  He added that, at the time, the Colombian government of former President Alvaro Uribe had refused to engage in this way. "However, nobody proposed to sanction or persecute the right-wing government of Colombia, as they are doing now with the government of Venezuela," he said.

  Maduro said that the regional summit should be a space for discussion of "the north with the south," adding that the Summit provided no conclusions, no proposals and no decisions.

  The eighth Summit of the Americas concluded on Saturday, with 16 countries signing a declaration on Venezuela, rejecting the country's presidential elections scheduled for May 20.

  Maduro concluded by saying that the Summit saw the beginning of an international scheme to sabotage the elections, adding that he would reveal proof of this in the coming days.