President of Ecuador Rafael Correa's decision to skip the 6th Summit of the Americas in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, due to the exclusion of Cuba from the meeting continues getting support from the people.
"We cannot abandon Cuba," Casa de las Americas Prize laureate Raul Perez Torres told Prensa Latina.
In opinion of indigenous young woman Paulina Sisa Lima, President Correa's stand was like saying enough and no longer turned the other cheek, while Sami Pilco described Correa's decision as very honourable.
"It is not possible to accept any discrimination like that against Cuba in the Summit of Cartagena," he said.
"I applaud his decision a thousand times," said Sisa, whose opinion is shared in Latin America, and even in Canada, by hundreds of intellectuals and social organizations that undersigned a letter supporting the Ecuadorian president's attitude.
Yumac Ortiz, the daughter of late Ecuadorian archaeologist Lenin Ortiz, a close friend of Cuba's, said she congratulates Correa because his stand sets an important precedent.
In her opinion, continental solidarity towards the Cuban people has been strengthened, and also Latin America needs to assume more radical, independent, sovereign opinions.
Results of the Cartagena summit, ended without a final declaration due to a lack of consensus, also made headlines in main Ecuadorian newspapers.
El Telegrafo newspaper published a front-page article titled "Summit of the Peoples, More Honorable than the Summit of Leaders," telling about setbacks of the meeting of presidents compared to the mass demonstration staged by social leaders of Latin America in Cartagena.
At least 8,000 people staged the march, held on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas, carrying banners supporting Cuba, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and against the presence of US President Barack Obama.
The source quoted General Secretary of the Central Unitary Workers Union of Colombia, Luis Alberto Plata, as terming the demostration impressive because of its large turnout.
Mario Sosa, from the National Association of Small Farmers of Cuba, said to welcome an alternative where the Island is not excluded, as Latin American nations are aware that his country would have a lot to contribute to the continent in a meeting like this.