LA summit opens with absence of several key leaders

LOS ANGELES－The inaugural ceremony of the Summit of the Americas kicked off in Los Angeles on Wednesday, with the notable absence of several key regional leaders.

US President Joe Biden will lead the gathering, which is being hosted by the United States for the first time since the inaugural event in 1994, with leaders from North, South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. The group is expected to discuss global issues, including ways to boost economic growth, address climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the summit was overshadowed by the absence of several Latin American leaders, including those of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, who boycotted the meeting, and those of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who were excluded by Washington. Uruguay's president said he had contracted COVID-19, and Bolivia also declined to attend.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, arguably the most important Latin American leader on the summit's guest list, finally announced on Monday morning that he would stay at home.

"There cannot be a Summit of the Americas if all countries of the Americas cannot attend," said Lopez Obrador at his daily news conference in Mexico City. "This is to continue the old interventionist policies, lacking respect for nations and their people."

Biden administration officials sought to downplay the absence of Lopez Obrador. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted the Mexican delegation, even without its president, would make "significant contributions" to the summit and its goals. However, experts regarded it as a disaster and embarrassment for US diplomacy.

CNN reported on Wednesday that the absence of the leaders is notable "since the United States has worked to cultivate those leaders as partners on immigration, an issue that looms as a political liability for Biden".

"Eight nations did not send a leader-level official to the most important event we have held on the region in decades. Speaks volumes about how badly we've managed relations with our neighbors..." tweeted Brett Bruen, who served in the administration of Barack Obama as director of global engagement, on Wednesday.

Migration has taken center stage at the summit, reflecting its emergence as a top foreign policy issue. But it has largely been overshadowed by differences over Biden's invitation list.

Biden outlined his plan as he launched the summit, which was conceived as a platform to showcase US leadership in reviving Latin American economies and tackling record levels of irregular migration at the US-Mexico border.

But Biden found himself welcoming a larger than normal contingent of foreign ministers sitting in for their national leaders as the arriving dignitaries walked up one by one to a red carpet flanked by a military honor guard.

Also on Wednesday, hundreds of people from across the Americas gathered in downtown Los Angeles for three days of art, music, speakers, debates, workshops, panel discussions and performances in order to outshine the ninth Summit of the Americas.

Xinhua - Agencies