Absence at summit ‘shows attitude’
LIMA, Peru — The announcement that US President Donald Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas to be held this week in the Peruvian capital reflects the “low priority” of Latin America on Washington’s agenda, said Peruvian analysts.
Peru’s international relations expert Miguel Rodriguez Mackay said Trump, who was expected to make his first visit to the region as US president, has once again made his “contempt” for Latin America clear.
“We have to be sensible, Trump’s contempt for Latin America has been confirmed,” said Rodriguez, citing Trump’s project to build a wall on the border with Mexico to curb illegal immigration.
The White House said on Wednesday US Vice-President Mike Pence will attend the summit on behalf of Trump, who has decided to stay home to focus on issues related to the alleged use of chemical weapons recently in Syria.
“US interests are not in Latin America, but in the Middle East. We continue to be seen as its backyard. That’s why Trump’s absence from the summit, where for the first time there won’t be a US president among the participants, marks a key point in ties and in the application of policies based on consensus,” Rodriguez said.
Political analysts Farid Kahhat and Oscar Vidarte agreed that Washington not only puts Latin America low on its agenda, but also lacks any development vision for the hemisphere as a whole.
“Trump has no positive agenda for Latin America that he could present at the summit. Almost all matters that have linked Trump to Latin America are matters of confrontation, whether in trade or immigration,” said Kahhat.
“I’m not very surprised (with Trump’s absence) because the US government really has no clear agenda for the region,” he said.
Since Trump took power in January 2017, Vidarte said, “the topic that has dominated ties with Latin America has been the search for measures that will benefit his country more”.
Jorge Castro, head of the Institute of Strategic Planning in Argentina, said Trump’s cancellation of the visit “is quite revealing, it shows the US priorities are elsewhere”.
He also said that compared with countries in the northern area of Latin America which are geographically nearer the US, South America’s relations with the US are “irrelevant”.