Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has introduced that he'll skip the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week in response to U.S. President Joe Biden's resolution to exclude the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
"It is not going to be a summit of the Americas with out the participation of all international locations within the Americas," Lopez Obrador advised a press convention Monday.
"I imagine in the necessity to change the coverage ... of exclusion," he added, "of the will to dominate for no motive and never respect the sovereignty of nations, the independence of every nation."
Lopez Obrador's announcement marks one other fracture within the once-cordial relationship between the U.S. and its closest Latin neighbor.
These relations hit a low throughout the Trump administration, as Biden's predecessor typically used anti-Mexican speaking factors and insurance policies to mobilize his base, starting with the beginning of his marketing campaign for president.
"When Mexico sends its individuals, they don't seem to be sending their finest," he stated at a information convention on June 16, 2015 in Trump Tower in New York Metropolis, at which he introduced his candidacy. "They're bringing medicine. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And a few, I assume, are good individuals."
Many anticipated the U.S.-Mexico relationship to enhance with the election of President Joe Biden, who has sought to emphasize that his presidency marks a step away from Trump's "America First" insurance policies.
However whereas his rhetoric has been noticeably "toned down," Biden has continued a few of his predecessor's most controversial immigration insurance policies, together with extending Title 42, which excludes asylum seekers from international locations that pose well being dangers resembling COVID-19, and imposing Migrant Safety Protocols, which permit the U.S. to power migrants searching for asylum to attend in Mexico moderately than within the U.S. whereas their instances are determined.
Mexico is the second-largest buying and selling companion of the U.S. — behind solely Canada, and forward of China — so tensions between the 2 can have financial penalties for each. Tensions over the invite listing for Biden's Summit of the Americas this week have been constructing for months, resulting in Lopez Obrador's announcement final month that he would solely attend the summit if all international locations within the Americas have been included.
"If they're excluded, if not all are invited, a consultant from the Mexican authorities would go, however I'd not," Lopez Obrador advised a press convention on Might 10.
His official announcement that he wouldn't attend got here simply days after Biden introduced that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua could be excluded from the summit. Lopez Obrador stated that International Secretary Marcelo Ebrard will attend in his stead.
Lopez Obrador additionally introduced that he'll go to Biden in Washington in July, the place he intends to debate immigration and commerce points.
White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated 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 international locations.
"We don't imagine that dictators ought to be invited," Jean-Pierre advised a press convention on Monday.
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