America summit in Los Angeles: Biden suffers serious diplomatic defeat
US President Joe Biden has invited to a meeting with the Latin American countries – but many do not come. The Mexican President, for example, wants to show protest by staying away.
It was supposed to be the beginning of better relations between the US and Latin American countries – but instead the Americas summit highlights the divisions across the continents. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador carried out his threat on Monday and stayed away from the summit after Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were not invited. He wanted to protest against the policy of “exclusion” that has been going on for “centuries”.
US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, defended the decision to leave the three countries out of the Los Angeles meeting: “We don’t think dictators should be invited.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called Biden’s summit a “neoliberal failure” that “isolates and decouples the US from our America.” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro spoke of “discrimination against three peoples”.
Diplomatic defeat for Biden
In addition to López Obrador, the head of state of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, and the presidents of Guatemala and Bolivia, Alejandro Giammattei and Luis Arce, who are at odds with the USA, are also staying away from the summit. Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou will not take part because of a corona disease.
In particular, the absence of the Mexican head of state is a serious diplomatic defeat for US President Joe Biden. Mexico is now represented by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, and López Obrador wants to meet Biden in Washington in July, according to his spokeswoman.
Biden’s core concern meets resistance
Biden is trying to improve relations with countries further south. These relationships had suffered greatly under his predecessor Donald Trump. However, Biden has also largely followed Trump’s course on trade issues, while rival China is becoming increasingly present in Latin America with investments and trade initiatives.
Biden’s core concern – a regional agreement to curb migration – has so far met with little approval in the South. It was only on Monday that several thousand migrants set off from southern Mexico to get to the United States.
Biden himself wants to come to Los Angeles on Wednesday. According to the White House, a total of 23 heads of state are to arrive. Announcements on economic cooperation, the fight against the corona pandemic and climate change are expected.
