Mexico president’s summit snub shows limits of U.S. reach in Latin America

By David Alire Garcia

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The Mexican president’s refusal to attend a U.S.-hosted summit due to disputes over the visitor checklist highlights how Latin America’s leftists are pursuing an more and more impartial international coverage from Washington.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had mentioned he wouldn’t go to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week led by U.S. President Joe Biden except all governments within the area had been requested.

On Monday, he adopted by as Washington mentioned it was not inviting its antagonists Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua on the grounds of human rights and democratic shortcomings.

Lopez Obrador’s agency line over the previous few weeks received backing from different left-leaning governments throughout Latin America keen to face as much as Uncle Sam, fanning diplomatic tensions simply as Washington tries to re-engage with its southern neighbors.

Luis Guillermo Solis, a center-left former Costa Rican president, mentioned Lopez Obrador’s dedication to clamor for an inclusive dialogue confirmed off his anti-imperialist credentials, placing a tone with centuries of resonance within the area.

“The best approach to do it’s to symbolically combat with the US,” Solis mentioned. “It is a well-known play in our neighborhood.”

The summit goals to advertise democratic unity, however the dispute uncovered divisions between Washington and governments sympathetic to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, self-styled leftists who’ve lengthy been reviled by the U.S. international coverage institution.

Leftist leaders in Argentina, Chile, Honduras, and Bolivia have echoed Lopez Obrador’s sentiments, taking U.S. officers abruptly and leaving them scrambling to make sure Biden will not be left speaking to empty chairs when he arrives on Wednesday.{nL1N2XM1B8]

Biden is underneath home strain from Republicans in addition to some fellow Democrats to not look comfortable on Cuba and Venezuela with the method of elections in November that may decide whether or not his get together retains management of Congress.

The controversy dangers overshadowing Washington’s need to stop democratic backsliding within the area, mentioned John Feeley, a retired U.S. ambassador and veteran Latin America diplomat who helped manage earlier regional summits.

Feeley additionally flagged considerations about Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro undermining confidence in his nation’s October election and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s push to hunt re-election regardless of constitutional time period limits.

“Uneven waters goes to be the fact,” mentioned Feeley.

CUBA’S PULL

In March, Cuba started handing down jail sentences of as much as 30 years to dozens of individuals arrested final yr on the largest anti-government protests because the island’s 1959 revolution.

That month Citlalli Hernandez, secretary normal of Lopez Obrador’s ruling get together, led a delegation to the communist-run island earlier than he himself went in Could, lauding the federal government and inking a deal to convey Cuban medical doctors to Mexico.

Hernandez hailed what she referred to as Cuba’s personal model of participatory democracy, its achievements in well being and training, and rejected any suggestion it was a dictatorship.

“We deeply respect the method of Cuban revolution,” the 32-year-old senator mentioned.

Her help factors to the enduring enchantment of Cuba’s one-party mannequin amongst a swath of Latin America’s left, underlining a pointy cut up with Biden’s center-left Democratic Celebration.

Whereas Biden partly rolled again a few of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump’s hardest sanctions, he and most Democrats stay stern critics of Cuba’s report on democracy and human rights.

Costa Rica’s Solis believes the area’s actual political fault traces should not between left and proper.

“It is an issue between democracy and authoritarianism,” he mentioned, describing Maduro’s authorities as “felony left” and Ortega’s Nicaragua as “extra like a monarchy”.

Venezuela and Nicaragua have criticized the summit as exclusionary, and Cuba’s Diaz-Canel mentioned he wouldn’t attend no matter whether or not he was invited.

Biden is properly positioned to warn concerning the dangers of weakening democracy, given the false claims of widespread voter fraud and different misinformation pushed by Trump, mentioned ex-diplomat Feeley.

However even probably the most profitable bilateral talks in Los Angeles will unlikely shake the broader pattern, he mentioned.

“The general panorama will proceed to be tough, confused and complicated.”

(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Extra reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Enhancing by Dave Graham and Grant McCool)