Summit of the Americas: Joe Biden will have to hit hard to make friends in the South

At the Summit of the Americas, which starts this Monday, June 6, US President Joe Biden will have a lot to do to convince Latin American countries to prefer the United States to China.

REUTERS - EVELYN HOCKSTEIN

Text by: RFI Follow

4 mins

The United States is hosting the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week.

Joe Biden wants to take advantage of the event to relaunch cooperation and strengthen economic exchanges between the countries of the north and south of the continent.

But the big meeting wanted by the Democratic president risks turning into a political embarrassment.

The presence of several countries remains - indeed - uncertain.

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The organization of this summit has turned into a diplomatic nightmare for the Biden administration, reports

.

Will Mexico boycott?

Originally, the White House's decision to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the guest list, believing that "

 " .

In response, several countries, Mexico in the lead, threatened to boycott the Los Angeles summit.

The presence of Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (known as AMLO) is still pending.

The Mexican Head of State has let it be known that he would refrain from coming if all the countries of the Americas were not invited to this ninth edition.

It's a push from Mexico that puts Biden's diplomacy in a little more trouble.

Until the last moment, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador left doubt about his presence in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas.

For several weeks, he had been demanding that no country be excluded.

And at the end of last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again echoed the Mexican president's boycott threat by saying that the ball was in the United States' court, the

.

The administration of Joe Biden does not want to do without Mexico.

A summit without him would be considered a failure on the part of American diplomacy.

A few days earlier, a special adviser to Joe Biden was even sent to organize the summit and try to convince the Mexican president.

But AMLO may well defend a central position between the United States and Cuba as well as the other countries, however, despite this pressure, Mexico is well aware that it must take care of its bilateral relationship with its neighbor.

Everyone promises that AMLO's blackmail will not affect relations between the two countries.

Finally, all that Mexico risks is to weigh down this summit of the Americas a little more, which is already sorely lacking in stakes. 

Counter the Chinese presence, but how?

This is how what should have been an opportunity to reaffirm the place of the United States as a leader on the continent risks turning into humiliation for Joe Biden.

“ 

 ”, poses Gaspard Estrada, specialist in Latin America at Sciences Po Paris.

The American president is expected on site from June 8 to 10.

This summit was to be an opportunity to discuss immigration, trade, and climate, as China continues to expand its influence in South American countries. 

The United States are expected at the turn, explains Gaspard Estrada.

To solve the causes of the increasingly important migratory flows first.

Joe Biden must indeed face many criticisms of his migration policy.

In particular, he maintained strict measures put in place by Donald Trump at the start of the Covid pandemic.

Measures which are not unanimous with certain countries of South America.

But also to relaunch economic cooperation in a very disturbed context on the international level.

This could go through a " 

 », Analyzes the specialist.

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• United States

• Mexico

• Diplomacy

• Joe Biden

• Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

• Trade and Exchanges

• Climate