Barely launched, Biden’s “Summit of the Americas” already shunned – Le Monde

Joe Biden, in Washington, June 6, 2022. STEFANI REYNOLDS / AFP President Joe Biden’s hopes of strengthening ties with Latin America, on crucial issues such as immigration, were severely dashed on Monday, June 6, by his Mexican counterpart, who decided to boycott the Summit of the Americas opened in Los Angeles to protest against the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. These three countries were not invited, a White House official confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday, stressing the “reservations” of the United States in the face of “the lack of democratic space and respect of human rights” in these three countries. The Cuban government denounced the US decision not to invite him as “undemocratic and arbitrary”. The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, had made it known that he would not make the trip under such conditions, and he carried out his threat. “I’m not going to the summit because we don’t invite all the countries of America. I believe in the need to change the policy that has been imposed for centuries: exclusion,” Mr. Lopez Obrador told the press. It is its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, who will represent Mexico, but the absence of Mr. Lopez Obrador automatically weighs on the scope of the decisions that could be taken at the end of the summit. “Mexico is an important player in the hemisphere. We are very happy that (…) Foreign Minister Ebrard is present,” responded Ned Price, spokesman for the US State Department. Immigration as a major theme According to Joe Biden’s main adviser for Latin America, Juan Gonzalez, the American president will use the Summit of the Americas to make announcements on economic cooperation and the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as against climate change. The American president, who will only travel to Los Angeles on Wednesday, also hopes to conclude a regional cooperation agreement on a politically explosive subject, and which has earned him violent criticism from the Republican opposition: immigration, a major political issue. interior in the run-up to the mid-term elections. Read also: A caravan of several thousand migrants left Mexico for the United States The number of people seeking to enter the United States after fleeing poverty and violence in Central America and Haiti is on the rise. The Biden administration has so far failed to keep its promise to pursue a revamped immigration policy, which it wants to be more humane than that of the Trump mandate. “The United States will disappoint” Washington has ensured the arrival of certain major leaders, both the center-left Argentinian president, Alberto Fernandez, and the far-right Brazilian head of state, Jair Bolsonaro. But the absence of the Mexican president will be perceived as “significant”, according to Benjamin Gedan, who directs studies on Latin America at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Read also: Joe Biden asks the Supreme Court to end the anti-immigration policy put in place by Donald Trump The researcher also notes that where China is investing heavily in the region, the American president has so far not not announced any substantial economic effort. “The summit will have to be judged by the yardstick of the United States’ proposals in terms of commercial access, loans and assistance to finance the recovery and infrastructure in the region,” said Benjamin Gedan. “And on these points, the United States will disappoint, it is inevitable,” he believes. The Summit of the Americas was initiated in 1994 in Miami by President Bill Clinton, who wanted to launch a vast regional trade liberalization agreement. But free trade is no longer on the rise, neither in the United States nor elsewhere, and in this regard, Joe Biden has not basically broken with the protectionist reflexes of his predecessor, Donald Trump. The World with AFP