The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, confirmed this Monday (6th) that he will not attend the Summit of the Americas, a meeting organized by the US that brings together leaders of the continent in Los Angeles this week. The absence is a response to the US government’s decision not to invite representatives from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the event, dictatorships treated as pariahs by Washington.
The Mexican’s announcement is a setback for the government of Joe Biden, which acted to avoid a diplomatic failure at the summit with the absence of important countries. As he did with President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who will attend the event, the Democrat also delegated a representative to convince Obrador to attend the Summit of the Americas, but the response was negative.
Despite Obrador’s absence, Mexico should be represented at the Summit by the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard. The Mexican president, in turn, holds a meeting with Biden at the White House in July.
“I’m not going to the summit because not all countries in the Americas are invited. I believe in the need to change a policy that has been imposed for centuries: exclusion,” said Obrador.
US officials claim to have invited only leaders of governments that respect democracy. A Biden administration official told AFP that the US continued to hold reservations about what it called a “lack of democratic spaces” and the “human rights situation” in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In response to Cuba’s exclusion from the summit, the country’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, called the meeting a “neoliberal failure” that “isolates and disconnects” the US from America. Earlier, the presidents of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, an ally of Obrador, and of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, whose administration has already received criticism from the White House, announced that they would not attend the meeting even if they were invited.
Another president who will not attend the meeting is Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou. He canceled the trip after contracting coronavirus.
Bolsonaro, in turn, has confirmed participation in the Summit of the Americas and will take advantage of his trip to the US to meet with Joe Biden on the sidelines of the event. The meeting with the democrat is considered an opportunity for the Brazilian to break the image of isolation and international pariah.
The meeting, held amidst the Summit of the Americas, comes a year and a half after Biden came to power in Washington, during which time the two presidents never spoke directly. After Los Angeles, Bolsonaro should extend the trip to Orlando, Florida, to inaugurate a vice consulate of Brazil and find supporters.
The ninth edition of the Summit of the Americas, to be held from Monday (6) to Friday (10), was designed by Washington to symbolize the return of US leadership in Latin American affairs, after the Presidency of Donald Trump, during which Regional issues took a back seat – at the last summit, in 2018, the Republican did not go to Lima and became the first US leader to miss the meeting.
This Monday, the arrivals of the presidents of Panama, Laurentino Cortizo, and Chile, Gabriel Boric, are expected, who criticized the exclusion of countries at the summit. Bolsonaro is expected to arrive in the US on Thursday (9).
The absence of Obrador and other Central American presidents comes amid the arrival of thousands of migrants at the US border. This Monday, a caravan that was in southern Mexico left for the north with Venezuelans and Nicaraguans traveling in search of employment and a better financial situation.
Despite the absences, topics such as economic growth, post-pandemic recovery, the fight against global warming and especially migration are on the agenda at the meeting.
SOME OF THE SUMMIT DEBATES PROPOSED BY THE US:
Democracy
Create mechanisms to defend democracy, support international observer missions in elections, strengthen the fight against corruption and protect the press and human rights activists.
Health
Expand access to care centers, medical training and scientific research to strengthen protection against new pandemics.
energy transition
Create clean energy adoption goals, exchange technical knowledge and encourage partnerships between companies on the continent.
climate change
Advancing in the fight against deforestation, based on the terms of the 2021 Glasgow Declaration, reducing carbon emissions and water pollution.
digital transformation
Create a regional digital transformation agenda to increase access to the internet and digital services, especially for the poorest.
Immigration
Seek to stem the flow of immigrants to the US, improve economic conditions in poor countries to discourage migration, expand refugee protection, and combat coyotes and human traffickers.
