WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Los Angeles on June 8 to host the ninth Summit of the Americas, a high-profile regional gathering that takes place every three to four years.
The weeklong conference is expected to address major regional issues that include finding ways to boost economic growth, combat climate change, slow migration and address the pandemic, according to the White House.
.The White House is scrambling to avert a boycott of the summit tied to a diplomatic spat over its decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the conference. All have authoritarian governments that Washington considers to be in violation of the democratic spirit that the hemispheric conference is supposed to promote.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has threatened to skip the summit unless all countries in the Western Hemisphere were included, triggering a potential boycott that could undermine U.S. influence at a critical time in the Western Hemisphere.
Guatemala said it would not attend after the U.S. criticized its handling of official corruption cases, although several Caribbean countries have backed off earlier threats to skip the event.
It’s still unclear if Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, a major ally of former President Trump and leader of the largest country in Latin America, will attend.
Earlier this week, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Twitter that “under no circumstance” would he attend after U.S. officials floated the idea of inviting a representative from Cuba.
The White House has dispatched former Sen. Chris Dodd, Biden’s special adviser for the summit, and the first lady to the region to try to secure commitments to attend. A first batch of invitations went out last week, but White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday they are still considering additional invitations.
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also participate in the summit, the White House said.
