墨西哥总统宣布他本周不会前往美国参加美洲首脑会议这是拜登政府利用三年一度的会议重申美国在西半球领导地位的努力受到的又一次冷落。
周一，安德烈斯·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔总统称乔·拜登总统为“好人”，但他指责美国国内的政治压力导致拜登决定将古巴、委内瑞拉和尼加拉瓜排除在峰会之外。
“我认为有必要改变政策...在一次新闻发布会上，洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔(López Obrador)说，“这是一次没有美洲所有国家参加的美洲首脑会议，”他经常被称为AMLO。
AMLO不是唯一抵制邀请名单会议的政府首脑。玻利维亚、安提瓜和巴布达、危地马拉和洪都拉斯的领导人表示，他们不会出席，而包括智利和阿根廷左翼领导人在内的其他人则批评了美国的决定，但仍然确认他们将出席。
拜登将于本周晚些时候与第一夫人吉尔·拜登博士、副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯和第二先生道格·艾姆霍夫一起前往洛杉矶主持峰会，计划宣布在移民、经济发展、公共卫生、气候变化、民主等问题上的协议。
但抵制主导了峰会的讨论，一些批评者说，政府在围绕共同目标动员参与方面做得不够。
“缺乏针对该地区的强有力的议程为意识形态形式的干扰打开了大门华盛顿智库战略与国际研究中心的高级研究员瑞安·伯格在推特上写道。
目前还不清楚AMLO的缺席会产生多大的影响，尤其是当他宣布将派遣外交大臣马塞洛·埃布拉德代替他时。这位民粹主义的民族主义总统还表示，他将于7月在白宫会见拜登。
但是失去世界第15大经济体和拉丁美洲第二人口大国的领导人是一个打击，特别是在拜登派他的朋友和前参议院同事克里斯·多德作为峰会的特别顾问前往墨西哥和其他国家以提高出席率之后。
据该地区的白宫高级官员胡安·冈萨雷斯(Juan Gonzalez)称，拜登还“非常重视个人参与”，这可能会使任何怠慢更具侮辱性。几个月前，政府公开提出邀请AMLO观看洛杉矶道奇队(LA Dodgers)棒球比赛的想法，这是对一位口头上挑战美国的领导人的热情姿态，一些批评人士说，他破坏了墨西哥的民主。
然而，一些分析人士说，拜登执政一年多来，没有投入足够的精力实现他的既定目标，即重新确立美国在西半球的领导地位，并在这个经历了重大倒退和政治动荡的地区促进民主。
2021年11月18日，美国总统乔·拜登在白宫椭圆形办公室会见墨西哥总统安德烈斯·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔
Pool/Getty Images，文件
“不幸的是，拜登政府没有投入所有必要的政治资本来解决从海地到委内瑞拉的10多个政治问题，并使峰会取得成功，”美洲对话组织(Inter-American Dialogue)的移民、汇款和发展项目主任曼努埃尔·奥罗兹科(Manuel Schmidt)说。
“在拉丁美洲和加勒比地区，美国面临的问题越来越多，令人难以招架...政治资本不在那里，”他补充道。
多德在其他地方更成功，尤其是在巴西。拉丁美洲最大国家的极右翼领导人雅伊尔·博索纳罗总统上周宣布，他将出席峰会，并与拜登进行首次一对一会谈。由于拜登的环境政策、对巴西民主的攻击以及与前总统唐纳德·特朗普的密切关系，他与拜登的关系一直很冷淡。
除了多德，政府还安排吉尔·拜登(Jill Biden)于5月对厄瓜多尔、巴拿马和哥斯达黎加进行友好访问，她在那里受到了国家元首和其他第一夫人的热情接待，并参观了由美国资助的医院和学校。
副总统哈里斯上个月还打电话给洪都拉斯的左翼总统西奥马拉·卡斯特罗，但不到24小时后，她宣布如果有排斥，她不会参加。
哈里斯一直负责阻止来自洪都拉斯和其他中美洲国家的移民，并在1月份参加了卡斯特罗的就职典礼，试图在该国的第一位女性领导人中寻求盟友。但自从拜登宣布她的角色以来，她因在15个月内访问该地区三天而受到批评——有时对充满政治风险的问题保持一定距离。
美国官员表示，由于古巴、委内瑞拉和尼加拉瓜对公民社会和民主的镇压，他们不能邀请这些国家的领导人，他们认为，该地区的国家在2001年的《美洲民主宪章》中一致认为，一个国家的任何“民主秩序的中断”都对其参加峰会“构成不可逾越的障碍”。
AMLO没有出席，而是宣布他将于周四或周五前往墨西哥瓦哈卡州，该州上周受到飓风阿加莎的袭击，以调查损失和重建工作。
Mexico's president snubs US-hosted summit over invitation list, distracting from Biden's agenda
Mexico's president has announced that he will not travel to the U.S. this week to attend theSummit of the Americas-- another snub that has distracted from the Biden administration's efforts to use the tri-annual meetings to reassert U.S. leadership in the Western Hemisphere.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called President Joe Biden a "good man" on Monday, but blamed U.S. domestic political pressure for Biden's decision to exclude Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the summit.
"I believe in the need to change the policy... of exclusion, of the desire to dominate for no reason and not respect the sovereignty of countries, the independence of each country, and it will not be a summit of the Americas without the participation of all countries in the America's," said López Obrador, often known by his initials as AMLO, during a press conference.
AMLO is not the only head of government to boycott the meetings over the invitation list. The leaders of Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, and Honduras have said they will not attend, while others -- including left-wing leaders in Chile and Argentina -- have criticized the U.S. decision while still confirming their attendance.
Biden will travel to Los Angeles later this week with first lady Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to host the summit, with plans to announce agreements on migration, economic development, public health, climate change, democracy, and more.
But the boycotts have dominated talk around the summit, with some critics saying the administration has not done enough to rally participation around common objectives.
"A lack of robust agenda that speaks to the region has opened the door to distractions in the form of ideological& political theater," tweeted Ryan Berg, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
It's unclear how much of an effect AMLO's absence will have, especially as he announced he would dispatch his Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in his place. The populist, nationalist president also said he would meet with Biden in July at the White House.
But losing the leader of the world's 15th largest economy and the second most populous country in Latin America is a blow, especially after Biden sent his friend and former Senate colleague Chris Dodd as a special adviser for the summit to Mexico and other countries to shore up attendance.
Biden also "incredibly values personal engagement," according to his top White House official for the region Juan Gonzalez, perhaps making any snubs more insulting. Months ago, the administration publicly floated the idea of inviting AMLO to an LA Dodgers baseball game -- a warm gesture toward a leader who has rhetorically challenged the U.S. and who, some critics say, has undermined Mexican democracy.
Some analysts say, however, that over a year into his administration, Biden has not put enough energy into his stated goal of reasserting U.S. leadership in its hemisphere and promoting democracy in a region that has seen significant backsliding and political upheaval.
"Unfortunately, the Biden administration did not put all the political capital needed to address more than 10 political problems" from Haiti to Venezuela and to make the summit a success, said Manuel Orozco, the director of the Inter-American Dialogue's migration, remittances, and development program in Washington.
"The quantity of problems that are mounting in Latin America and the Caribbean vis-à-vis the United States is just overwhelming... The political capital wasn't there," he added.
Dodd had more success elsewhere, especially in Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right leader of Latin America's largest country, announced last week he would attend the summit and have his first one-on-one meeting with Biden, with whom he's had frosty relations because of his environmental policies, attacks on Brazilian democracy, and close ties to former President Donald Trump.
In addition to Dodd, the administration deployed Jill Biden on a goodwill tour in May to Ecuador, Panama, and Costa Rica, where she was warmly received by heads of states and fellow first ladies and visited hospitals and schools supported with U.S. funding.
Vice President Harris also called Honduras's left-wing President Xiomara Castro last month, but less than 24 hours later, she announced she would not participate if there were exclusions.
Harris has been tasked with stemming migration from Honduras and other Central American countries and attended Castro's inauguration in January, trying to secure an ally in the country's first female leader. But she's been criticized for visiting the region for three days in the 15 months since Biden announced her role -- keeping the politically fraught issue at times at an arm's length away.
U.S. officials have said they could not invite the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua because of their crackdowns on civil society and democracy, arguing that the region's countries agreed in the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter that any "interruption of the democratic order" in one country "constitutes an insurmountable obstacle" to its participation in the summit.
Instead of attending, AMLO announced he would travel on Thursday or Friday to the Mexican state Oaxaca, which was hit by Hurricane Agatha last week, to survey the damage and the reconstruction efforts.
