More than a quarter of a century after the first-ever summit of the heads of state and government of North, Central and South America, held in Miami in December 1994 at the initiative of Bill Clinton, the United States is hosting the leaders of the countries of the Western Hemisphere for the second time.
The Ninth Summit of the Americas, which takes place from June 6 to 10 in Los Angeles under the auspices of the Organization of American States, which unites 35 countries, will break a four-year pause in communication between leaders of Latin American countries, so different from each other, shifting either to the left or to the right in their development strategies.
States, each of which has its own personal history of relations with the most important of all the Americas - the United States.
For some Latin Americans, this most important America remains a light in the window or a beacon, for others it is a civilizational darkness hanging over the continent, which can only be defeated by the torches of Liberty Island, Nicaragua and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela blown out by the draft of history.
Experiencing a special interest in all kinds of summits - from climate to the summit of world democracies (in which one can see a certain tendency to geopolitical megalomania and positioning himself as the "president of the entire planet") - the host of the Summit of the Americas, Joe Biden, is true to himself.
He follows the same logic and the same goals that he previously followed in his communication with the leaders of other continents and regions of the world, regardless of which hemisphere he was talking about.
The latest in this series before the Summit of the Americas was the US-ASEAN summit held in Washington in May, during which his interlocutors were the leaders of the "Asian tigers" - the states of Southeast Asia, led by this year's chairmanship of the "Group of Twenty"
Indonesia.
Recall that in addition to the United States, the Southern Hemisphere in the G20 is represented by Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden's communication with world leaders shows that the geography and regions that they represent - whether we are talking about Europe, Asia, the Middle East or Africa, or, finally, Latin America - already have almost no self-sufficient significance for him. .
To delve into the specifics of this or that region, into its problems, sometimes very dramatic, even if not lying on the surface, is boring, uninteresting, it requires special efforts, and most importantly, it does not correspond to the political situation of today.
Today, the main question that the United States addresses to everyone and which becomes an invariable reference point in relations with absolutely all states of the world is this: are you ready to support American sanctions against Russia and international pressure on China or not?
The question is put point-blank, the position “both ours and yours” is not accepted.
If yes, then you are in one table of ranks, if not, then in another.
In this sense, the lists of participants and refusers can serve as an illustration of this trend — states that were invited to the Summit of the Americas, those that were not invited to it, as well as those who were invited, but they refused to go.
Among the uninvited, there are predictably representatives of that wrong Latin America, for whom the United States is not a light in the window and not a beacon, but a civilizational darkness.
As you might have guessed, these are Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Shortly before the Summit of the Americas, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega — one of the leaders of the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, re-elected to a fifth presidential term last November with a record high level of support — made a loud statement about Joe Biden's America, accusing it of political schizophrenia.
“There are no barriers to imperialism.
They think it's time for Yankee hegemony on the planet.
It's not just about the Monroe Doctrine.
They want to subjugate Russia, they want to subjugate China.
I would say that they are experiencing a moment of schizophrenia, thinking that the moment has come to dominate the entire planet, and do not understand that this is no longer possible, ”said Daniel Ortega.
It is clear that a political and statesman with such views could not pass face control at the Los Angeles Convention Center and proudly step onto its red carpet.
The same fate befell the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela, Miguel Diaz-Canel and Nicolas Maduro.
After an invitation to the summit was denied to the three most troubled Latin American regimes for the United States, the decision not to go to Los Angeles was made by Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador, Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora, and Ralph Goncalves, who bravely joined them, the Prime Minister of the tiny Caribbean States of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Without engaging in polemics with Joe Biden, President Obrador announced that he would visit the United States, but at another time - in July, and that's when he would talk with President Biden "about the integration of all of America", suggesting to move away from confrontation and threats.
Among those who agreed to come to the Summit of the Americas, there are no people willing to impose sanctions against Russia either.
An example to others is set by the three leading economies of the continent, members of the G20 - Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
According to the Globu newspaper, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro intends to call on the countries of the Western Hemisphere to find a joint solution to global problems, given, first of all, the deteriorating situation in world energy and food security.
Back in late February and early March, President Bolsonaro, the leader of the largest Latin American economy, which is part of the BRICS and at the same time has close relations with the United States, not only refused to join the punitive measures against Russia, but also gave a harsh assessment of the policies of Kyiv and President Zelensky personally.
“No sanctions or condemnation of President Putin.
Brazil's vote is not associated with any power.
We cannot interfere,” Jair Bolsonaro said at a press conference in Sao Paulo.
“You can’t try to resolve a difficult situation by creating an even bigger problem for all of humanity and our country,” the Brazilian leader explained then.
According to him, “a significant part of Ukraine speaks Russian, and the Russians and Ukrainians are fraternal peoples,” so “there is no interest on the part of the Russian leader to arrange a massacre.”
Speaking about the policy of sanctions, Jair Bolsonaro noted that each country does not act to the detriment of its own interests.
“Germany is not ready to discuss economic sanctions for the gas sector, like other European countries.
The United States has its own spheres of interest, sanctions against which they will not even discuss.
We have to be very responsible because we do business with Russia.
Brazil depends on fertilizers,” said President Bolsonaro, also recalling that his country provides food for about 20% of the world's population.
As Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, notes, "most Latin American countries do not intend to make the Russian-Ukrainian conflict their main foreign policy priority."
“On the contrary, they often see Western anti-Russian sanctions as an opportunity to fill the void and gain a stronger foothold in Russian markets,” said Andrey Kortunov in an article published in the Chinese English-language newspaper Global Times.
The same approach was demonstrated not so long ago at the US-ASEAN summit by the leaders of the states of Southeast Asia.
Like Asia, Latin America is less and less consistent with the idea of it as a traditional domain of Washington, which was formed in the second half of the 20th century after the collapse of the world colonial system, at the height of the Cold War.
Such different Americas, invited to the summit in Los Angeles or looking at it from the side, show that you cannot enter the same Cold War twice.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.