As the summit kicks off in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as the leaders of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, were not present to protest President Joe Biden’s decision not to include Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in talks. . The devastating nature of the neglect by several US allies has caused more headaches for the administration, obscuring the greater purpose of the summit, which the United States has not hosted since its inception in 1994.
However, for the first lady, the show must continue.
Despite a whirlwind of controversy over whether the boycotted summit collapsed before it even began, Jill Biden will host at least two solo events for a dozen or more spouses of the confirmed 23 heads of state attending the three-day summit. of the Western Hemisphere. Events have been under way over the past few weeks in coordination with the East Wing, according to a White House official.
Biden’s spouses program will showcase cultural elements of Los Angeles, and in the process the first lady will continue the theme she began during her diplomatic visits last month to Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica: it is better to be on the right than the wrong country.
In San Jose, Costa Rica, before returning to Washington and meeting with the country’s president, Biden felt confident that her time as an emissary – in a region of the world ripe by political struggle and economic uncertainty – served its purpose. .
“All the countries I visited said they would be [at the Summit of the Americas. I’m looking forward to it,” she said at the time.
Biden’s confidence, even as calls for boycotts of the summit grew louder, came on the heels of her remarks in each country’s capital city centered on the benefits of a healthy partnership with the US. Unlike Vice President Kamala Harris’ message of “do not come [to the United States]”She said during her visit to Mexico and Guatemala last June, Biden’s tone was closer to” stay where you are and reap the benefits of relations with the United States. ” for funding or assistance and promises of support from America.
“You can do so much yourself,” Biden said during a speech by President Guillermo Lasso at the presidential palace. Lasso and his wife will be on top.
“The first lady will host a program for the couple who are attending the summit to get together as a group and get to know each other,” Biden spokesman Michael LaRosa told CNN.
On Thursday, Biden is making his own diplomatic interventions, hosting a brunch that LaRosa notes will be “close to the ocean.” It is customary for the host’s first lady or husband to organize, plan and implement a number of events for global summits to keep the other halves of world leaders busy while their husbands raise complex issues that will undoubtedly arise in this particular collection.
That evening, Biden joined the president at Villa Getty, a museum overlooking the Pacific Ocean, for a welcome party and dinner for leaders and their husbands.
On Friday, Biden’s main event – a lunch at the Disney Concert Hall – will be held with entertainment by the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra and a performance by Torres-Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers, an Indian-inspired group that tells Indigenous stories through rhythmic song and rattle with gourds.
Lunch will be prepared by 10 female chefs and restaurateurs from the Los Angeles area, part of the Re: Her program, a national non-profit platform created to help women entrepreneurs in the dining and beverage space. The first lady will make remarks to the couple gathered over lunch, focusing, LaRosa, on “the interconnectedness of our world, especially America.”
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