Mexico’s leader vows to skip Summit of the Americas if Cuba is snubbed
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he won’t attend the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles next month if all Latin American leaders aren’t invited.
The U.S. government hasn’t invited the presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the region’s top political gathering, saying the leaders of the three countries don’t respect democracy. López Obrador, who maintains good diplomatic relations with the left-leaning governments and met with Cuban authorities in Havana last weekend, said on Tuesday that their inclusion is necessary to broaden discussions at the event.
“We are looking for the unity of all of America and we feel there shouldn’t be confrontation, that even with our differences we have to have dialogue and be brotherly,” López Obrador,
known as AMLO, said of the meeting that’s set for early June. “We’re trying to resolve this matter. We have a very good relationship with President Biden’s government and we want everyone to be invited.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who visited Washington last week, will represent Mexico at the summit if the Biden administration doesn’t accept his request, López Obrador said.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments on AMLO’s remarks.
Several members of the 15-nation Caribbean Community, or Caricom, have said the bloc might boycott the summit if Cuba is not invited and if the U.S. insists on recognizing Juan Guaidó as the president of Venezuela. The Caricom is meeting in late May in Guyana to set a collective stance on the issue.
Political analysts gave López Obrador little chance of success in pushing Biden’s
hand.
It is a “totally unnecessary snub” to Biden, said Veronica Ortiz, a political analyst in Mexico City. “Mexico needs to be aligned with its main trading partners, and the main trading partner is the U.S.,” she said. “The president needs to look after those interests and answer to the Mexican people ahead of any other government or people in the world.”
The move is a “complete failure to understand the dynamics of U.S. politics and the importance that he holds outside of Mexico,” said Duncan Wood, senior advisor to the Wilson Center think tank’s Mexico Institute. “If he doesn’t attend, it makes little difference as Ebrard will be there.”
During a tour across Central America and the Caribbean, AMLO said Sunday he wants the U.S. to lift economic sanctions on Cuba as they hamper the communist island’s development.