The Summit of the Americas began today in Los Angeles with the unsurprising announcement by a senior administration official that, because of their “lack of democratic space and the human rights situations,” the U.S. had decided not to invite Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua. The Biden administration waited until the last possible moment to make this announcement, insisting until this morning that the matter was still under discussion, and that consultations were still being made with many governments. Should Venezuela’s phony “president” Juan Guaidó participate, it would likely take place virtually and as a low-key side event. Anything more prominent would enrage many participants.
In response, Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced at his morning press conference that he won’t be attending and, instead, will send his Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to represent him. “The summit may be a failure,” he warned, but that’s the fault of U.S., due to its “policy of exclusion instead of openness…. I’m not going to the summit because all the countries of the Americas aren’t invited. That would be a continuation of the old interventionist policy of lack of respect for nations and their people.” For good measure, he also attacked the 60-year-old blockade of Cuba, which he called a flagrant violation of human rights and, because it prevents food and medicine from reaching Cuba, a “form of genocide.”
