With his position before the Summit of the Americas, President López is achieving several things: distracting attention from the economic and security problems that he has not been able to resolve, achieving leadership among countries with governments that call themselves leftist or progressive (Cuba , Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Honduras and those who accumulate) and, most importantly, propose to the Biden government a renegotiation on economic and migratory issues.
On the morning of May 9, AMLO slipped the idea that he would not attend the Summit of the Americas (CA-2022) to be held on June 6 in the city of Los Angeles, California, if all countries were not invited. from America. It should be noted that on that day he did not refer to any country in particular, the list was deduced by analysts. Immediately, experts and former diplomats described such a position as a “folly”, a “nonsense”, a “shot in the foot”. They argued our economic dependence on the United States and the possibility of “angering”, “straining” or “cooling” our relations with the Biden government.
The next day, the Bolivian government, headed by Luis Arce, a follower of Evo Morales, supported AMLO’s decision by warning that he would not attend the meeting if Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela were excluded. Also, the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, and the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, were in favor of the demand of their Mexican counterpart for the United States to include all the countries of the continent in the next CA-2022, although not They threatened their absence. For his part, the ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda in the United States, Ronald Sanders, announced that the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) would consider not attending the Summit if the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua is specified.
Faced with this wave of accusations, initiated by President López, the US government has been unclear in its position. Instead of sending a firm signal, it has been contradictory. In an interview for the newspaper El País, the Undersecretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Brian Nichols, assured that the United States has no plans to invite countries that “disrespect democracy” to CA-2022, in clear reference to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, to the meeting on June 6 in Los Angeles. Curious position because the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, had expressed the idea that the Summit would be the most inclusive in history.
As if that were not enough, on May 10, one day after AMLO’s warning, the still White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, seemed to respond to the Mexican president by stating: “we have not made a decision about who will be invited, the Final invitations have not yet been sent out.” This statement could be interpreted as a reconsideration by the Biden government about the presence of countries with open tyrannies at the Los Angeles meeting. In any case, the Americans have opened channels of communication with Cubans and Venezuelans on different issues. Are there doubts in Washington about these countries?
In reality, for the United States, Mexico is the backyard (or front, as Biden told the non-first lady, Beatriz Gutiérrez) and Latin America is a minor issue. Historically, the relationship between the two has been unequal and often illegal: from the promotion of coups (Chile, 1973), to brazen intervention (Panama, 1989), through the CIA in the drug business, the use abusive of the natural resources of the region or the support of dictatorships (Pinochet or the Military Junta of Argentina). There is a long etcetera on this list. Many times, the “good” US governments have been just as rogue as the “bad” ones. Much of the sympathy, which is otherwise absurd and historically archaic, towards dictatorships such as that of the Castros or that of Chávez-Maduro have one of their origins in US disinterest in and abuse of the region. The truth is that if Central Americans were not flocking to the United States, the United States would have no interest in curbing migration or investing in their countries of origin.
According to various international institutions, Latin America is the region most affected by COVID 19 and the resulting economic crisis. Also the region that is recovering the slowest. Many countries, governed by the right or the left, demand a redefinition of the relationship with the North American giant. By the way, given the Chinese advance and the Russian challenge, it now needs to add to the region. If the Biden administration does not understand this, it will leave the door open for demagogues and adventurers like López to take advantage.