Joe Biden scrambles to avoid Americas Summit flop as boycott clouds US plans
- The United States has excluded authoritarian leaders from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua from regional summit
- Mexico’s president Lopez Obrador said Monday he will not attend, in protest against exclusion of the other three countries
When leaders gather this week in Los Angeles at the Summit of the Americas, the focus is likely to veer from common policy changes – migration, climate change and galloping inflation – and instead shift to something Hollywood thrives on: the drama of the red carpet.
With Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announcing on Monday he would stay at home to protest the US’ exclusion of authoritarian leaders from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, experts say the event could turn into an embarrassment for US President Joe Biden.
Even some progressive Democrats have criticised the administration for bowing to pressure from exiles in the swing state of Florida and barring communist Cuba, which attended the last two summits.
“The real question is why the Biden administration didn’t do its homework,” said Jorge Castaneda, a former Mexican foreign minister who now teaches at New York University.
“I’m not going to the summit because they are not inviting all the countries of America and I think it is necessary to change the policy that has been imposed on us for centuries: exclusion,” said Lopez Obrador in his daily press conference on Monday.
