Grand Rapids, MI – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced he plans to bail on the Summit of the Americas because the Biden administration refuses to invite all the countries and leaders of Latin America. Mexico will instead send their foreign minister. The Biden administration has so far refused to invite Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela because the White House does not like their governments or leaders.

The 9th Summit of the Americas is supposed to involve all the heads of state and officials of government from the Western Hemisphere. President Biden is hosting it in Los Angeles June 6 through 10. Biden is attempting to use the summit as a wedge between the socialist and left-leaning countries of Latin America and their neighbors. Instead, it seems the summit is pulling apart and a growing list of leaders are cancelling.

In early May, 14 countries of the Caribbean (CARICOM) said they would not participate if the summit excluded Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda ambassador to the U.S. said, “CARICOM countries take the view that the Summit of the Americas is not a United States summit, which it isn’t.”

Mexican President Lopez Obrador was recently on a state visit to Cuba where he met President Diaz-Canel of Cuba and denounced U.S. sanctions on the island nation. Since returning to Mexico, Lopez Obrador made the decision to bail on Biden, sending a clear message to other Latin American and Caribbean leaders to take a stand.

The same day Bolivian President Luis Arce tweeted, “Consistent with the principles and values of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, I reaffirm that a Summit of the Americas that excludes American countries will not be a full Summit of the Americas, and if the exclusion of sister nations persists, I will not participate in the same.”

Even Brazil’s President Bolsonaro, notoriously right-wing, said he is evaluating whether to attend or not. Honduran President Xiomara Castro stated yesterday, “If all the nations are not present, it is not the Summit of the Americas.”

In sharp contrast to Biden’s summit, a different event, the “Workers Summit of the Americas” will take place from June 10 through 12 in Tijuana, Mexico. It plans to put forward a program for “unity of the working class and social movements to create a permanent forum for solidarity, and the linking of anti-imperialist, anti-colonial and anti-patriarchal struggles in the American continent.”

The summit will discuss ending U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua; how to oppose U.S. domination, interference and war in Latin America and the Caribbean; how to legalize immigration, and the role of workers and union solidarity across borders to win against multi-national corporations that care only for profits.

For more information on the Workers Summit of the Americas, or to participate in Tijuana, Mexico: https://afgj.salsalabs.org/workerssummitoftheamericas/index.html

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