By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Whatever is left of the plummeting US credibility in its own geographical area took a further nosedive at the Summit of the Americas Summit in Los Angeles when even the attendees at the heavily boycotted gathering blasted Washington for its affront to humanity.

A highly embarrassed President Joe Biden after wrongly claiming that he was committed to helping Latin America and the Caribbean recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, tackle irregular migration and improve living standards had to sheepishly hear many of his counterparts from the Hispanic World lash at his lies.

Biden, who violated the charter of the Summit of the Americas by excluding the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the weeklong gathering thereby prompting the leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, El Salvador and Haiti, to boycott the event, found himself isolated on his own home turf.

His harping on democracy in the western hemisphere despite the US record of undermining and overthrowing elected governments in Latin America and all over the world, was challenged by Prime Minister John Briceno of Belize, who said:

“The future of the western hemisphere is a question for all countries of this region, irrespective of their size, their GDP, and system of governance, in order to ensure a sustainable and equitable future, but isn’t it inexcusable that all countries of the Americas are not here and the power of the summit diminished by their absence?”

He said the fact that any Latin American country not being invited to the Summit of the Americas was “incomprehensible”, and in particular “not inviting Venezuela was unforgivable.”

Briceno also criticized the decades-long US economic blockade of Cuba. He was followed at the podium by President Alberto Fernández of Argentina who lashed out at the US and called for a change in the rules that allowed Biden, as the host of the summit, to decide who was invited to the gathering.

Earlier last Monday, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had slammed the US for its policy of exclusion, warning Washington that it needed to change its desire to dominate the world.

Lopez Obrador, who turned down Biden’s invitation to attend the summit because of the US refusal to invite the leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, had made it clear: “There cannot be a Summit of Americas if not all of the continent’s countries participate.”

It is to be noted that US officials had spent weeks trying to find a way to entice President López Obrador to the summit in Los Angeles, but failed.

US Vice President Kamala Harris could not succeed in persuading the leader of Honduras to come, while the leaders of El Salvador and Guatemala declined Biden’s invitation. 

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele would not even get on the phone despite frequent calls from US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

This is indeed humiliation for the US and a personal blow to Biden who ought to realize that the days when Latin America was viewed as Washington’s backyard are over.