Jamaica Gleaner

Mexico president threatens to skip Americas Summit

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MEXICO’S PRESIDENT said Tuesday that he would not attend next month’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles if the Biden administra­tion excludes Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua – adding his voice to increasing warnings of a boycott by some leaders across the region.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been saying in recent weeks that the United States government should not exclude anyone from the summit, but he had not previously threatened to stay home.

“If they exclude, if not all are invited, a representa­tive of the Mexican government is going to go, but I would not,” López Obrador said during his daily news conference, fresh off a visit to Cuba. He said his foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, would go.

The Mexican president’s absence would be a blow to the summit expected to deal heavily with the issue of migration at the US-Mexico border. The Biden administra­tion has worked for months to build regional consensus. Cabinet members have been visiting the region urging allies to shore up immigratio­n controls and expand their asylum programs.

“Our goal is ... to sign a regional declaratio­n on migration and protection in June in Los Angeles when the United States hosts the Summit of the Americas,” President Joe Biden said in March, when he hosted Colombia President Iván Duque at the White House.

NEW FRAMEWORK

He called for “a new framework of how nations throughout the region can collective­ly manage migration in the Western Hemisphere.”

Such cooperatio­n will be critical as the US wrestles with the problem of high numbers of migrants arriving at its southern border and prepares to lift a restrictio­n of asylum applicatio­ns there later this month that is expected to draw even more migrants north.

But leaders of Caribbean nations have also discussed a collective boycott of the summit if nations are excluded and criticised the US plan to invite Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó. The US recognises him as that country’s legitimate president, but many Caribbean nations do not.

“We do not believe in the policy of ostracisin­g Cuba and Venezuela. We do not recognise Juan Guaidó as the president of Venezuela. In those circumstan­ces, Antigua and Barbuda will not participat­e,” said that country’s prime minister, Gaston Browne.

He said that a consensus to boycott the summit if countries were excluded had emerged from Caribbean foreign ministers’ meeting in Belize in March, “but I am not sure if the consensus will hold.”

St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves had a similar take: “If Guaidó goes to represent Venezuela, if the Americans were to do that it would be an act of folly,” Gonsalves told a weekend radio program, saying St. Vincent may not attend if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is excluded.

Cuba is an active member of the Caribbean Community of nations and the Communistg­overned island has provided thousands of free scholarshi­ps to Caribbean medical, engineerin­g and other students since the mid 70s. Successive Venezuelan government­s have assisted Caribbean countries with prefabrica­ted housing and cheap oil.

A senior Biden administra­tion official said the blowback is largely posturing in response to a strong diplomatic push from Cuba – a perennial touchstone for the Latin American left – and that the US expects few leaders to follow through on threats to skip the summit.

Behind the scenes, several Caribbean leaders signalled they plan to attend, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic communicat­ions.

The official said the administra­tion expects both López Obrador and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro to attend.

Cuba was excluded from first six hemispheri­c summits, held from 1994 to 2012. But Cuba was invited to the 2015 gathering in Panama following growing threats of a boycott by leftist Latin American leaders if it was excluded – as well as a thaw in relations with the US under President Barack Obama, who met Cuban leader Raul Castro at the event.

Cuba also was invited to the last summit in Peru in 2018, but Castro sent his foreign minister instead because Venezuela’s Maduro had not been invited. US President Donald Trump did not attend either.

AN APPEAL

Argentina, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States, also issued an appeal this month to avoid excluding any government­s.

In a tweet, it called the summit “a great opportunit­y to build a space for encounters in which all the countries of the hemisphere participat­e” and urged organisers “to avoid exclusions that impede having all the voices of the hemisphere in dialogue and being heard.”

López Obrador left open the possibilit­y that he could attend if the Biden administra­tion invites all countries. He noted that previous summits had not excluded any countries and blamed the current situation on political minorities in the US backing a “hostile policy”.

“There’s still time before the summit and we could arrive at an agreement, but we have to all unite, look for America’s unity,” he said.

 ?? AP ?? President of Cuba Miguel Diaz Canel and his Mexican counterpar­t Andrés Manuel López Obrador chat after signing bilateral agreements at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba on, Sunday, May 8, 2022.
AP President of Cuba Miguel Diaz Canel and his Mexican counterpar­t Andrés Manuel López Obrador chat after signing bilateral agreements at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba on, Sunday, May 8, 2022.

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