The Biden administration has made a final decision to exclude the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the Summit of the Américas, people familiar with the matter said, despite threats from México’s president to skip the gathering unless all countries in the Western Hemisphere were invited.
By Reuters – Matt Spetalnick and Dave Graham
Jun 6, 2022
The decision, which followed weeks of intense deliberations, risks an embarrassing boycott of the U.S.-hosted gathering this week in Los Ángeles if Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and some other leaders choose not to show up.
U.S. officials determined that concerns about human rights and lack of democracy in the three countries, Washington’s main antagonists in Latin America, weighed too heavily against inviting them, a Washington-based source said late on Sunday.
The exclusion of leftist-led Venezuela and Nicaragua had already been flagged in recent weeks.
But with President Joe Biden due to open the summit on Wednesday, final word on Communist-ruled Cuba rested on whether to invite a lower-ranking representative in place of the island’s president, U.S. officials said.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said last month he would not go even if invited, accusing the U.S. of “brutal pressure” to make the summit non-inclusive. Cuba attended the past two summits.
The U.S. decision was first reported by Bloomberg News. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Mexico’s leftist president has said he was waiting for Biden to make a decision before announcing whether he would go. López Obrador could follow through on Monday morning when he speaks at a regular news conference.
Controversy over the guest list has clouded the U.S. goal of using the summit to repair Latin América relations damaged under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, reassert U.S. influence and counter China.
Having ruled out Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the administration is considering a role for opposition leader Juan Guaido, possibly virtually at a side event, a U.S. official said.
Washington recognizes Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president, having condemned Maduro’s 2018 re-election as a sham.
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