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The United States invites Spain to the Summit of the Americas

2022-05-21T03:53:27.256Z


The list of participants has generated controversy for not including Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua Spain will attend the Summit of the Americas in June, which is being held in Los Angeles (California). According to diplomatic sources, it has been the Government of the United States itself that has invited a Spanish delegation, which will attend as an observer. It is possible that the delegation is headed by the person in charge of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, although that aspect is no


Spain will attend the Summit of the Americas in June, which is being held in Los Angeles (California).

According to diplomatic sources, it has been the Government of the United States itself that has invited a Spanish delegation, which will attend as an observer.

It is possible that the delegation is headed by the person in charge of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, although that aspect is not yet closed and will depend, among other things, on the minister's agenda.

The Summit of the Americas has been held since 1994. Since that meeting held in Miami with President Bill Clinton as host, the United States had not organized it again.

The one that takes place between June 6 and 10 in Los Angeles is the IX Summit.

At the VIII, held in Lima, the then president of the United States, Donald Trump, did not attend.

It was the first time that the president of the United States had missed the meeting, which is usually held every three years.

This time the host will be Joe Biden.

Spain was invited for the first time to the Summit of the Americas as an observer to Panama in 2015. In that case, it was the Organization of American States that extended the invitation.

He also attended the 2018 summit in Peru.

Now it has been the United States Secretary of State itself, headed by Antony Blinken, which has taken the step to formalize the invitation, according to diplomatic sources.

democratic countries

The guest list is far from a peaceful affair.

Although the United States has avoided making closed official pronouncements, it has made it clear that it does not count on the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

Asked about this by EL PAÍS, the Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, Brian Nichols, declared: “There is a democratic sentiment and vision in the Americas and we are going to respect that.

And, therefore, we don't think it's convenient to include countries that disrespect democracy."

In 2018, Peru withdrew the invitation to Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela was not represented at the summit except by civil associations and members of the opposition.

Even then, that decision caused controversy and division among the attending countries.

Cuba did attend that meeting and was against Venezuela being excluded.

Now, the exclusion can affect Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

The State Department spokesman said Friday that Washington had begun to send the invitations, but without making the list public or confirming those excluded or included.

In addition, he left the door open to expand the list at the last moment.

Several countries in the region, led by Mexico, oppose the decision not to invite these three countries.

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has conditioned his assistance to the fact that there are no exclusions.

The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, has made a similar announcement, while the presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández;

from Chile, Gabriel Boric;

and from Honduras, Xiomara Castro, have not ruled out their participation, but have asked that there be no exclusions.

Castro has pointed out that it is not a Summit of the Americas if all the countries are not invited.

Despite being excluded from the summit, the United States has made detente gestures this week with Cuba and Venezuela.

The government of President Joe Biden announced on Monday that it will restore regular commercial and charter flights to Cuba, which now only reached Havana, and that it will suspend the limit of 1,000 dollars per quarter on remittances, reversing some of the measures tougher than his predecessor, Donald Trump.

And he has also slightly eased sanctions on Venezuela.

Diplomats from some countries in the region criticize that, with just over two weeks to go before the summit begins, there is still no confirmed guest list and that the agenda is very open and vague.

They understand that the United States has given priority to its response to the war in Ukraine, but they consider that their homework has not been done in time for the summit to be a success.

For Spain, being invited to the summit is a diplomatic success, but it would be very diluted if in the end the absences are more important than the presences.

Spain has been strengthening ties with the United States after a few moments of some distance.

This very week, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has been at the Pentagon preparing the NATO summit in Madrid with the Secretary of State for Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin.

That meeting will lead to Joe Biden's first visit to Spain as president of the United States.

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América newsletter and receive all the key information on current affairs in the region.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-05-21

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