A State Department official says three governments are unlikely to attend the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June.
The governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are likely to be excluded from the Ninth Summit of the Americas, to be hosted by the United States in June, a senior US State Department official has said.
“It’s unlikely they’ll be there,” US Deputy Secretary of State Brian Nichols told a small group of reporters on Wednesday, saying the regional leaders’ summit would focus on democracies in the Western Hemisphere.
The comments sent the clearest message that those three governments, all on bad terms with Washington, will be snubbed once the White House releases the guest list. That announcement would be coming soon, Nichols added.
His statements come a few days after the Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the Biden administration of pressuring regional governments prevent Cuba’s participation in the summit.
“We have learned from various sources that the United States government has been making intense efforts and exerting pressure on the countries of the region to try to exclude Cuba from the IX Summit of the Americas,” Rodríguez wrote on Twitter.
“There is no justification to exclude Cuba or any other country from this event that we have attended the last two editions,” he said.
The United States and Cuba held their first high-level talks in four years last week, but tensions remain between the two nations over migration, ongoing U.S. sanctions against the island, and the Cuban government’s recent decision repression of opposition demonstrators.
On Wednesday, Nichols also said the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was unlikely to participate in the summit, but said the White House would decide whether to invite Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó instead.
The United States and dozens of other countries have recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela and rejected Maduro after accusing him of rigging his 2018 reelection.
But last month Maduro said he had agreed on an agenda for future talks. with US officials after meeting with a delegation from Washington in the first such discussions in years.
Meanwhile, relations between Washington and Managua have been especially tense in recent months after the US. re-election last november as a “farce”.
Ortega has presided widespread and continuous repression on political opponents and opposition figures before and after last year’s vote, drawing condemnation from US and European officials.
“It is clear that Nicaragua has lost any semblance of democracy as a result of the electoral farce,” Nichols said.
Migration is expected to be one of the main topics of discussion at the IX Summit of the Americas, as the Biden administration seeks promote regional cooperation to prevent asylum seekers from pouring into the US’s southern border with Mexico.
Those numbers are expected to rise soon next month as the US plans to end a controversial pandemic policy that had allowed the authorities to quickly expel most of the people who arrived at the border in search of protection.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden will speak with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Friday to “discuss his vision for the Ninth Summit of the Americas and how North America can lead priority initiatives for the region.” ”, the White House said. saying in a sentence.
“They also plan to discuss cooperation on migration, joint development efforts in Central America, competitiveness and economic growth, security, energy and economic cooperation.”