President López Obrador of Mexico to quit the Summit of the Americas
Following weeks of threats that he would stay home if the White House refused to invite officials from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reaffirmed his decision on Monday.
Requests for confirmation that López Obrador would boycott this week’s summit were not immediately answered by the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
Other international leaders, including López Obrador, have threatened to skip the Summit of the Americas – an event aimed at bringing countries from across the continent together — because to concerns that the program would be shallow and that Biden will not prioritize Latin America.
In his absence, the Mexican president has stated that his foreign affairs secretary will head the Mexican team to the summit, and that he will instead visit towns impacted by a recent hurricane. Mexico, along with Honduras, will send a lower-level delegation to the event to protest the three countries’ exclusion.
The White House has touted an ambitious agenda for the summit, which the United States is hosting for the first time since its inception in 1994, claiming that the meeting’s focus will be “creating a sustainable, resilient, and egalitarian future.” However, the president’s aim to focus on policy topics like migration and climate change may be overshadowed by the continuous intrigue surrounding the guest list.
