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By Jalen Small
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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has announced that he will skip the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week in response to U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to exclude the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
"It will not be a summit of the Americas without the participation of all countries in the Americas," Lopez Obrador told a press conference Monday.
"I believe in the need to change the policy ... of exclusion," he added, "of the desire to dominate for no reason and not respect the sovereignty of countries, the independence of each country."
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Lopez Obrador's announcement marks another fracture in the once-cordial relationship between the U.S. and its closest Latin neighbor.
Those relations hit a low during the Trump administration, as Biden's predecessor often used anti-Mexican talking points and policies to mobilize his base, beginning with the start of his campaign for president.
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said at a news conference on June 16, 2015 in Trump Tower in New York City, at which he announced his candidacy. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Many expected the U.S.-Mexico relationship to improve with the election of President Joe Biden, who has sought to stress that his presidency marks a step away from Trump's "America First" policies.
But while his rhetoric has been noticeably "toned down," Biden has continued some of his predecessor's most controversial immigration policies, including extending Title 42, which excludes asylum seekers from countries that pose health risks such as COVID-19, and imposing Migrant Protection Protocols, which allow the U.S. to force migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico rather than in the U.S. while their cases are decided.
Mexico is the second-largest trading partner of the U.S. — behind only Canada, and ahead of China — so tensions between the two can have economic consequences for both. Tensions over the invite list for Biden's Summit of the Americas this week have been building for months, leading to Lopez Obrador's announcement last month that he would only attend the summit if all countries in the Americas were included.
"If they are excluded, if not all are invited, a representative from the Mexican government would go, but I would not," Lopez Obrador told a press conference on May 10.
His official announcement that he would not attend came just days after Biden announced that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua would be excluded from the summit. Lopez Obrador said that Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard will attend in his stead.
Lopez Obrador also announced that he will visit Biden in Washington in July, where he intends to discuss immigration and trade issues.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration was not caught off guard by Lopez Obrador's announcement, and confirmed that Biden felt compelled to take a "principled stand" on the human rights abuses of the three excluded countries.
"We do not believe that dictators should be invited," Jean-Pierre told a press conference on Monday.
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