WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Dispatches) -- The Biden administration has made a final decision to exclude the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the Summit of the Americas, people familiar with the matter said, despite threats from Mexico’s president to skip the gathering unless all countries in the Western Hemisphere were invited.
The decision, which followed weeks of intense deliberations, risks an embarrassing boycott of the U.S.-hosted gathering this week in Los Angeles if Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and some other leaders choose not to show up.
U.S. officials used the pretext of purported concerns about human rights and alleged lack of democracy in the three countries, Washington’s main antagonists in Latin America, weighed too heavily against inviting them, a Washington-based source said late on Sunday.
The exclusion of leftist-led Venezuela and Nicaragua had already been flagged in recent weeks.
But with President Joe Biden due to open the summit on Wednesday, final word on Cuba rested on whether to invite a lower-ranking representative in place of the island’s president, U.S. officials said.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said last month he would not go even if invited, hitting out at the U.S. for “brutal pressure” to make the summit non-inclusive. Cuba attended the past two summits.
Mexico’s leftist president has said he was waiting for Biden to make a decision before announcing whether he would go. Lopez Obrador was expected to follow through on Monday morning when he was to speak at a regular news conference.
Controversy over the guest list has clouded the U.S. goal of using the summit to repair Latin America relations damaged under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, reassert U.S. influence and counter China.
Having ruled out Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the administration is considering a role for opposition leader Juan Guaido, possibly virtually at a side event, a U.S. official said.
Washington recognizes Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president even though he has not won an election.
Also barred from the summit is Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla who won a fourth consecutive term in November.
If Lopez Obrador does not show up, it could raise questions about the prospects for progress in discussions on curbing migration at the U.S. southern border, a priority for Biden.
The pushback by leftist-led governments suggests many in Latin American are no longer willing to follow Washington’s lead as at times in the past, Reuters said.