The meeting among neighbors had not even started when the atmosphere was already in the basement. At the IX. At the summit of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Los Angeles, which runs until next Friday, the big issues in the region are supposed to be negotiated: migration, climate change, economic recovery after the corona pandemic, cooperation in the health sector.
But the focus has been on a different question for weeks: who comes to the America Summit and who doesn’t? A series of cancellations has given host US President Joe Biden an ugly start to his new Latin America endeavors.
The invitation list for the summit has been a political issue for weeks. The Biden government only wanted democratically elected heads of state to attend the meeting and did not invite the authoritarian countries of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Presidents of several other states criticized this as American arrogance, declared their solidarity with those excluded and canceled their participation. Other heads of state are staying away for other reasons. In the end, the heads of state and government of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bolivia, Uruguay and two small Caribbean countries are missing from the summit.
The cancellation of Mexico’s left-wing nationalist head of state Andrés Manuel López Obrador is particularly painful for the US President. The fact that the president of the neighboring country of the USA and the second most populous country in Latin America does not come to the summit is a diplomatic setback for Biden. Mexico, but also Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are particularly relevant when it comes to the weighty issue of migration, which Biden must bring under control.
Just a few days ago, a high-ranking official in Washington said that Biden was keen to have Mexico’s president with him. Now the White House is trying to play down the boycott: There are different perspectives on the American continent and they stand by their own position of not inviting dictators.
But the invitation debacle cannot be concealed. For weeks, the US government hung around when asked about the invitations, and didn’t even want to officially confirm that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were uninvited. The list of participants was not published until Tuesday, one day after the beginning of the summit program. And with the number of participating heads of state, the White House also counted host Biden in its distress.
“Many Latin American governments perceive Biden’s guest list management as an attempt to turn the clock back to the 1990s or early 2000s, when Washington was still clearly at the head of the regional table,” writes Brian Winter in Americas Quarterly. “But of course those times are over.”
In more and more countries in the region, such as Brazil, Chile and Peru, China has replaced the USA as the most important trading partner. China buys raw materials on a large scale, invests in infrastructure and finances large-scale projects – without imposing onerous conditions on human rights and environmental protection.
Solidarity with dictators in parts of Latin America also shows a certain indifference to democracy. At the 2001 America Summit, all countries in the region, with the exception of Cuba, had committed themselves to upholding democracy.
However, fewer and fewer people in Latin America now believe that democracy is the best form of government: According to the polling institute Latinobarometro, support for democracy fell from 63 percent to 49 percent between 2010 and 2020.
Biden presents himself as a champion of democracies in a showdown with autocracies. And he wants to focus more on Latin America – after his predecessor Donald Trump was never really interested in the countries in the South. But the start of Biden’s efforts is more than bumpy.
Mexico’s former foreign minister, Jorge Castañeda, told CNN: “Biden needs to come up with a plan on how to tackle the important issues in Latin America. He needs to show that he genuinely cares about the issues in the region and that it’s not just about US politics.”
The corona pandemic has exacerbated many social problems in Latin America, drug smuggling into the USA is causing violence and corruption on transport routes, climate change is leading to natural disasters and droughts.
These disruptions are now manifesting themselves in the form of tens of thousands of refugees on the US southern border. This, in turn, puts pressure on Biden domestically.
In view of the energy and food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine, Latin America also has a lot to offer: Argentina and Brazil are among the largest meat and grain producers in the world, there are huge lithium deposits in the border triangle between Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, and numerous projects are underway in South America for the production of green hydrogen.
The US government has had to put up with uncomfortable questions about why it is so particular about the autocrats in Latin America, while Biden is considering a meeting with the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – despite all the criticism of serious human rights violations there. A government official replied, somewhat strained, that this was a “comparison of apples and pears”.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tested positive for the corona virus on her trip to Pakistan. The minister then canceled all further appointments. Before that, during her visit, she spoke about the situation of the people in Afghanistan.
Markus Söder does not want to run again as the Union’s candidate for chancellor in the next federal election. He emphasized that he dedicates his energies “exclusively to Bavaria”. In the 2021 election campaign, he had played with similar words – and then competed against CDU colleague Armin Laschet.
The first person diagnosed with monkeypox in Germany has recovered, according to a hospital report.
