It’s unusual in a last-minute attempt to salvage what officials once described as a top-priority event for relations in the United States’ own neighborhood. Absences from critical leaders – most notably the Mexican president, who is threatening to boycott – risk undermining the rally, even as Biden and his team seek to make progress on politically sensitive issues such as migration to the southern border and economic growth.
Officials say the summit will continue and downplay any worries about who might appear. They began finalizing Biden’s agenda and schedule for the multi-day meeting.
But even before it began, organizational squabbles uncovered rifts in a region where Biden once hoped to restore U.S. leadership.
Both are critical issues for Biden, who has identified competition with Beijing as a major challenge for decades to come and is struggling to tackle illegal border crossings.
But the success of the meeting may depend on who attends.
Last month, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico’s participation would not be confirmed until the United States invited each country to the hemisphere, saying no country should be excluded from the summit. US officials have repeatedly said that the autocratic governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela will not be invited to the summit because of their human rights. But Mexico and other nations in the region have closer ties with those countries, and called the decision a call for exclusion.
Senior administration officials on Wednesday dismissed fears of attending the upcoming North and South American summit, instead emphasizing ongoing co-ordination between countries to address regional issues.
“We still have some final considerations, but we will soon inform people publicly about the final list of invitations,” said Juan Gonzalez, senior director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, adding: “We haven’t been so focused on who’s and who’s has been invited for more on the results we want to achieve at the summit. ”
Kevin O’Reilly, the national coordinator for the North and South American summit, told lawmakers last week that Venezuela and Nicaragua had not been invited, but asked the White House if anyone from the Cuban regime had been invited.
“This will be a decision for the White House,” O’Reilly told Senator Marco Rubio, who asked about the guest list.
The White House is considering inviting a Cuban representative, but has not yet confirmed any decision. Cuba was not invited to early reruns of the America’s Summit in the 1990s, but has been involved in the last few versions. Then-President Barack Obama held a historic handshake and meeting with Raul Castro at the 2015 Panama Summit.
The White House declined to disclose a list of invitations even in the days leading up to the summit. Pressed about whether low attendance would hamper the impact of the summit, Gonzalez said the gathering would be “well attended” and relations with Mexico would “remain positive”.
The White House has dismissed questions as to why details were being made a week before the summit.
“I think if you’ve been following this administration for the last year and a half, a week is not the eleventh hour when it comes to how things are going. So, this is a lifetime for us as the White House, “spokeswoman Carine Jean-Pierre told the press on Wednesday.
However, she seems to have acknowledged that attendance issues included some of the goals of the summit.
“I know there are always questions about invitations, there are always questions about who is coming and who is not, but we also need to talk and focus on the purpose of this meeting,” she said.
The excessive presence at the summit is indicative of the changing dynamics in the Western Hemisphere, as some countries are distancing themselves from the United States.
Some U.S. officials downplayed the reluctance of some leaders to attend as attempts to turn to their political base and warned against reading decisions as a sign of declining U.S. influence.
The administration is working to maintain U.S. influence in the region, including through recent high-level visits by First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former Senator Christopher Dodd, who is a special adviser to the summit, traveled to South America and met with officials in Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Following Dodd’s visit, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will attend the meeting and plans to hold his first bilateral meetings with Biden.
Relations between the United States and Brazil have been strained after former President Donald Trump, a political ally of Bolsonaro, failed to run for re-election. The Brazilian president was one of the last world leaders to congratulate Biden after the 2020 US election and publicly criticized US pressure to limit the growing deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil.
He was initially skeptical about the trip to Los Angeles for the summit and complained that Biden ignored him when they met at the G20 last year. But he agreed to attend when he was confident he would not be photographed alone.
Dodd has held similar talks with other leaders in the region, including lengthy discussions with Lopez Obrador, although he has not yet secured the Mexican leader’s commitment to attend.
Even the presence of countries working directly with the US government – and Harris in particular – remains in question. The leaders of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have also not yet pledged to attend next week’s summit, although Harris has worked to cultivate relations in the region, including attending the inauguration of the Honduran president in January. Harris spoke with Honduran President Xiomara Castro last week, but the report did not mention the summit.
Other countries, including Chile and Argentina, have criticized Washington’s decision to exclude certain countries.
Latin American countries are discussing the presence with each other, according to a senior Guatemalan official.
“Each country has its own decision-making process and arguments to say whether we are going or not,” said a senior Guatemalan official. Guatemala is expected to send a delegation to the summit, but it is unclear whether the president will attend.
The Biden administration is preparing a declaration on migration for the parties to sign, which provides a framework for the protection of migrants.
“This declaration will allow us to focus on promoting stabilization in migrant-receiving communities, helping those communities and migrant-receiving communities to ensure things like access to legal documentation and public services,” said Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State. Secretary of State for Western Affairs in the Western Hemisphere, told reporters on Wednesday.
Officials also expect to achieve results in stimulating economic growth, coordinating pandemic recovery and combating climate change.
Democrat Joaquin Castro expressed optimism about the summit, even if some countries were not present. “We can make it work. We have daily relations with these countries, but the summit is a chance for the countries to come together and plan ahead,” he told CNN.
But, Castro added, countries that have not yet committed will “be missed” if they are not present.
However, without assurances as to who will be present, it remains unclear what weight the summit statements will have.
Traveling to Latin America last week, First Lady Jill Biden, who will join her husband in Los Angeles for the inauguration and dinner of the leaders, said she was reassured that the countries she visited, including Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rick will attend the America’s Summit.
The first lady dismissed fears of a boycott.
“I’m not worried,” she said. “I think they will come.”
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