Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will skip the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles later this week over objections to President Joe Biden’s guest list for the event.
López Obrador confirmed his decision Monday following weeks of threats that he would stay home if the White House refused to invite authoritarian leaders from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the summit.
“There cannot be a summit if all countries are not invited,” López Obrador said at a press conference on Monday. “Or there can be one but that is to continue with all politics of interventionism.”
López Obrador is joined by a list of other world leaders who are also threatening to skip the Summit of the Americas — an event designed to bring countries together from across the hemisphere — over fears that the agenda for the event will be thin and that Biden doesn’t see Latin America as a priority.
The Mexican president said that his foreign affairs secretary will lead the Mexican delegation to the summit in his absence, and the Mexican president will instead visit communities affected by a recent hurricane. Mexico is joining Honduras in sending a lower-level delegation to the event to protest the exclusion of the three countries.
The White House has emphasized an ambitious agenda for the summit, which the U.S. is hosting for the first time since its launch in 1994, claiming the theme of the meeting will be “building a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.” But the president’s plan to focus on policy issues such as migration and climate change could be overshadowed by the ongoing drama over the guest list.
