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The ninth version of the Summit of the Americas, whose motto is “Building a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future,” has not escaped controversy. The United States, the organizing country, left out of its invitation Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela; arguing that they are countries that do not respect the Democratic Charter of the Americas and, therefore, are not welcome. Despite the efforts of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to mediate, Washington stood by.
This edition of the Summit of the Americas is the first in which the United States is the host country since these meetings began to be held in 1994, after a call made by the then US president, Bill Clinton.
Mexico will be represented at the Summit by its Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. The United States respected the Mexican government’s decision not to attend the meeting. Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina had also threatened not to attend, but Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro soon lowered his tone when he was offered a private meeting with President Biden. The same thing happened with Alberto Fernández from Argentina, when the Casa Rosada received an invitation to make an official visit to Washington in July.
For his part, the president of Uruguay, Luis Calle Pou, did not attend the event either, in his case due to medical reasons: the Uruguayan government indicated that the president tested positive for Covid-19 and for that reason he would not attend the Summit.
The controversy already leaves a bad taste in the mouth about the expectations of the meeting. Especially at a time when the region needs to see unity between countries, commitment, leadership to jointly face the recovery after the coronavirus pandemic and analyze issues such as populism, democratic backsliding, migration, security and the growing food insecurity that especially affects Latin America.
In addition, the situation leaves many questions about the state of hemispheric relations: how is the relationship of the United States with Latin America today? How is democracy and the political-ideological relationship in the continent? Is there a strengthened common agenda? What happens with cross-cutting issues such as inequality, poverty and drug trafficking? We analyze it in this edition of El Debate from the hand of our guests:
– María Guadalupe González, associate professor at El Colegio de México.
– Mónica Hirst, professor at the Institute of Social and Political Studies of the University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and at the Torcuato Di Tella University (Argentina).
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