It is an unusual last-minute attempt to salvage what officials once described as a high-priority event for US neighborhood relations. Absenteeism from important leaders — most notably the president of Mexico, who is threatening a boycott — threatens to undermine the rally, even as Biden and his team look to make progress on politically sensitive issues such as immigration to the US southern border and economic growth. .
Officials say the summit will continue and have played down any concerns about who might attend. They have begun finalizing the agenda and Biden’s schedule for the multi-day gathering.
Yet even before it began, the organizational rift at the summit exposed divisions in a region Biden once hoped to reassert US leadership.
Both are very important issues for Biden, who has framed competition with Beijing as the main challenge for the coming decades and has struggled to deal with illegal border crossings.
But the success of the summit may depend on who attends.
Senior administration officials on Wednesday dismissed concerns about attending the upcoming Summit of the Americas, emphasizing instead on ongoing coordination between countries to address regional issues.
“We still have some final considerations, but we will be publicly informing people soon of the final invitation list,” said Juan Gonzalez, director of the Western Hemisphere division at the National Security Council, adding, “We haven’t focused too much on who is invited and who isn’t invited and really more on the results.” Which we want to achieve at the top.”
Kevin O’Reilly, the national coordinator for the Summit of the Americas, told lawmakers last week that Venezuela and Nicaragua had not been invited, but referred to the White House on whether anyone from the Cuban regime had been invited.
“This will be a decision for the White House to make,” O’Reilly told Senator Marco Rubio, who asked about the guest list.
The White House refused to reveal an invitation list, even in the days before the summit began. After insisting on whether poor attendance would hamper the impact of the summit, Gonzalez stressed that the meeting would be “a good attendance” and that the relationship with Mexico would “remain positive.”
And the White House shrugged off questions about why the details were set a week before the summit began.
“I think if you’ve been following this administration for the past year and a half, one week is not the eleventh hour when it comes to how things are moving. And that’s the long run for us as the White House,” Press Secretary Karen Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
However, she does seem to acknowledge that questions about attendance have incorporated some of the summit’s objectives.
“I know there are always questions about invitations, there are always questions about who is coming and who isn’t coming, but we also have to speak up and focus on the purpose of this meeting,” she said.
The frequent attendance at the summit is indicative of the changing dynamics in the Western Hemisphere as some countries are distancing themselves from the United States.
Some US officials have played down the reluctance of some leaders to attend as attempts to appeal to their political base and cautioned against reading the resolutions as a sign of waning US influence.
The administration has worked to maintain American influence in the region, including through recent high-profile visits by First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former Senator Christopher Dodd, who serves as a special advisor to the summit, traveled to South America and met with officials in Brazil, Chile and Argentina. After Dodd’s visit, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will attend the summit and plans to hold his first bilateral meetings with Biden.
Relations between the United States and Brazil have been strained since former President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro’s political ally, failed in his bid for re-election. The Brazilian president was one of the last world leaders to congratulate Biden after the 2020 US election and is publicly critical of US pressure to limit deforestation of Brazil’s growing Amazon.
He was initially skeptical about traveling to Los Angeles for the summit and complained that Biden ignored him when they met at the G-20 summit last year. But he agreed to attend when he confirmed that he would not submit to just a photo shoot.
Dodd had similar conversations with other leaders in the region, including lengthy discussions with Lopez Obrador, although he did not yet believe the Mexican leader’s commitment to attend.
Even the presence of states working directly with the US government – more specifically, Harris – remains in question. The leaders of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have not yet committed to going to the summit next week, although Harris has worked to grow relations in the region, including attending the inauguration of the Honduran president in January. Harris spoke with Honduran President Xiomara Castro last week, but the statement made no mention of the summit.
Other countries, including Chile and Argentina, have criticized Washington’s decision to exclude certain countries.
Latin American countries are discussing attendance among themselves, according to a senior Guatemalan official.
“Every country has its own decision-making process and arguments for saying we go, or we won’t go,” the senior Guatemalan official said. Guatemala is expected to send a delegation to the summit, although it is unclear if the president will attend.
The Biden administration is preparing a declaration on immigration for states to sign that provides a framework for protecting immigrants.
“This announcement will allow us to focus on promoting stability in the communities that host immigrants, assisting those communities and the immigrants that host them, and ensuring things like access to legal documents and public services,” Brian Nichols, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs told reporters on Wednesday.
Officials also expect results on boosting economic growth, coordination on pandemic recovery and combating climate change.
Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro expressed optimism about the summit, even if some countries did not attend. “We can make it work,” he told CNN. “We have a daily relationship with these countries, but the summit is an opportunity for countries to come together and plan for the future.”
But Castro added that countries that had not yet committed would be “missed” if they did not attend.
But without assurances of who would attend, it remained unclear what weight the summit’s pronouncements would carry.
While traveling to Latin America last week, First Lady Jill Biden — who will join her husband in Los Angeles for the opening ceremony and leaders’ dinner — said she reassured countries she visited, including Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica, that she would attend the opening ceremony. Americas Summit.
The first lady shrugged off the boycott’s fears.
“I’m not worried,” she said. “I think they will come.”
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