Washington lowers the expectations it had on immigration due to the absence of López Obrador, dissatisfied because Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua have not been invited to the meeting
Could Joe Biden afford a friendly photo in Los Angeles with Daniel Ortega, Nicolás Maduro and Miguel Díaz-Canel? That is why none of those three dignitaries have been invited to the Ninth Summit of the Americas, which the US is hosting for the first time since its inauguration in 1994. But can Washington show any progress on the goals of this summit? focused on immigration without the presence of Mexico? That is the dilemma facing the Biden administration.
As an antidote to the foreseeable failure, the White House is trying to lower the expectations of concrete achievements and has focused on something much more ethereal, “building a sustainable, resilient and equitable future for our hemisphere.” The question is, what role will the US have in that hemisphere?
For Biden, the setback in Mexico, whose president Andrés Manuel López Obrador formally rejected the invitation yesterday, is another blot on his file. The US president came to power with gleaming foreign policy credentials thanks to the 37 years he had spent in the Senate and in particular on the Foreign Affairs Committee, many of them at the helm. Afghanistan exposed him, as did his inability to prevent the Russian invasion of Ukraine and even convince China to join in the condemnation. Beijing is back on the scene with this summit, of which it is not a party.
When Bill Clinton took advantage of the vacuum left by the Soviet Union in 1994 to create a summit with which to promote democracy, free trade and collaboration between the democratic governments of the continent, the United States was the only power to look towards. Today China rivals the North American country and has made important furrows of influence in Latin America. Washington warns of the ties that its partners contract by accepting aid for infrastructure projects under a plan in which the Asian giant has invested 4.3 billion dollars, but does not offer alternatives, particularly to governments that do not want democratic sermons.
Biden has invested in the summit with personal calls to leaders who were hesitant to attend. One of them, the Argentine Alberto Fernández, arrived accompanied by a visit from his adviser Christopher Dodd, who was unable to confirm his attendance at the high-level meeting to be held tomorrow, and only a statement in which Argentina expresses its commitment “to the success of a summit in which everyone is included’. Uruguay will be missing for sure because its president, Luis Lacalle, has covid.
“United as a block”
It is, in fact, a parallel summit under the umbrella of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), whose presidency in turn is held by Argentina. “The event will be held without opposing schedules and with the spirit of remaining united as a block,” the Télam agency said, citing sources from the Argentine Foreign Minister, Santiago Cafiero, and his Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard.
At a press conference, López Obrador assured yesterday that he had good relations with Biden, whom he considers “a good man”, who is experiencing a “very difficult” political situation for legislating with a Senate divided 50-50, pressured by the opposition and blackmailed by a senator from his own party, Bob Menéndez, who as a Cuban-American joins forces with exile. “From my point of view they are acting with hatred and do not want the brotherhood of the peoples,” he accused them. “They are making a selfless and worthy people like Cuba suffer.”
López Obrador has not joined the UN condemnations of the Russian invasion nor does he participate in the sanctions. In his opinion, the US needs to abandon the old paradigm of empire and change the policy of exclusion, “wanting to dominate for no reason, not respecting the independence of each country,” he argued. “There can be no Summit of the Americas if all the countries of the American continent do not participate,” he said.
Topics
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, José Daniel Ortega Saavedra, Nicolás Maduro, White House, UN, Argentina, Cuba, United States, Latin America, Los Angeles, Mexico
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