While some analysts consider that the absences of Venezuela, Nicaragua and, probably, Cuba have broken the meaning of the Summit of the Americas next week in Los Angeles, others think that they will not have any consequences and will not overshadow the United States’ plan to promote a migratory pact, as contemplated in the official agenda.
To date, the government of President Joe Biden has avoided publishing the list of guests for the event, which will take place from June 6 to 10, amid warnings from countries such as Mexico, Honduras and some territories of the Caribbean Community ( Caricom), which could boycott the summit due to absences.
Washington has been blunt regarding the non-participation of Venezuela and Nicaragua, and has been lukewarm about that of Cuba, despite the fact that in recent weeks it has resumed contacts with Havana on migration and has withdrawn some sanctions on Caracas to facilitate dialogue with the opposition.
The Atlantic Council expert Jason Marczak, who directs the Adrienne Arsht Center for Latin America of that laboratory of ideas, told Efe that it would have been “very difficult” for the United States to invite the presidents of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega.
In his opinion, these two rulers are not interested in working together with other nations to reach a migratory agreement, since they carry out actions that destabilize the continent.
For this reason, it makes more sense for Marczak for Washington to promote a pact with the countries that receive migrants in order to coordinate their policies on this matter.
Washington has been blunt regarding the non-participation of Venezuela and Nicaragua, and has been lukewarm about that of Cuba
“Migrants and refugees leave Nicaragua, Venezuela, not for reasons of the migration policy of Maduro or Ortega, but because of legal repression, the economy and political repression,” said the analyst, for whom neither Maduro nor Ortegan go to change the actions that cause citizens to leave their countries.
Meanwhile, in the absence of confirmation of the attendance or otherwise of a Cuban delegation at the summit, the US expert stressed that for some countries in the region it has been “a priority” to promote the participation of “some level of the Cuban government.”
Given the lack of clarity on the part of Washington, the Cuban government seems to have ruled itself out. The president himself, Miguel Díaz-Canel, assured last week that he “under no circumstances” would participate in the summit.
The possibility that a second-level government delegation or a representation of Cuban civil society will come to Los Angeles has been fading for him as the date approaches.
This Sunday the journalist Mary Matienzo She was “prevented from traveling at the José Martí airport when she tried to board a flight that would take her to the United States to participate in the IX Summit of the Americas,” according to the coordinator of the Dialogue Table of Cuban Youth, Kirenia Núñez.
The Cuban regime also prevented the activist Saily Gonzalez attend the IX Summit of the Americas to which she was invited as a representative of Cuban civil society. She let him know through her family that she could not pick up her passport and her visa at the United States Embassy in Havana and State Security summoned her to remind her that they had an open criminal investigation against her.
to the activist Aymara Pena they let him know that “no one would participate” in the IX Summit of the Americas. As he denounced this Saturday on his social networks, State Security “did not allow me to travel to Havana and kept me imprisoned in a dirty cell after making threats to me.”
The final Cuban slam came with the recent celebration in Havana of a summit of leaders of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (Alba)), which staged the closed support of this forum to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, its main members, who puffed up their chests in the face of exclusion.
For Mexican academic María Cristina Rosas, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Unam), the Biden Administration has put itself in a predicament regardless of the final decision it makes.
“Biden is looking bad with God and with the devil: he looks bad with the Republicans, he looks bad with a part of the Cuban community in the United States and, on the other hand, he gives Cuba many weapons so that it continues to blame him for the evils that afflict him,” he said in an interview with Efe.
Carlos Alzugaray pointed out Washington’s position as a mistake. “With Cuba there are no middle terms. (Barack) Obama was perfectly aware. (Bill) Clinton paid dearly for having tried to swim between two waters”
In this same line, the former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray abounded, who pointed out that Washington’s position was an error. “With Cuba there are no middle terms. (Barack) Obama was perfectly aware. (Bill) Clinton paid dearly for having tried to swim between two waters,” he argued in statements to Efe.
In his opinion, the US is repeating the veto on “failed policies” and diverting attention from the region’s important problems: “That is not convenient for anyone,” he assured. Rosas highlighted at this point the “power” of lobby Cuban-American, whom he considers the “best” among the Hispanic communities in the US when it comes to influencing the country’s foreign policy.
Alzugaray believed that Cuba is being harmed by not being able to participate in the hemispheric forum, but at the same time it benefits politically from exclusion, due to the regional support it has obtained -especially Mexico-, and the demonstration of Washington’s “inefficiency”.
He further noted that the Cuban migration to the US – whose numbers have been increasing significantly in recent months – is an issue that can be discussed in a regional forum, but must be addressed bilaterally.
The self-discarding that Cuba seems to have chosen was not an option for Venezuela and Nicaragua, since the White House made the resounding and irrevocable decision not to include them on the list of invited countries.
Of the three, Ortega was the one who showed the greatest disinterest in participating in the summit and played down the importance of the continental event, which he considers “does not exalt anyone.”
“We have to make ourselves respected, we cannot be asking the Yankee, begging him that we want to go to his summit. His summit does not stimulate us,” Ortega argued on May 18 during a government act in Managua.
However, Maduro is convinced that their voices will be heard in Los Angeles, “whatever the host says”, whom he belittles, by overruling his will and ensuring that the marginalized will also be there.
The self-disposal that Cuba seems to have chosen was not an option for Venezuela and Nicaragua, since the White House made the resounding and irrevocable decision not to include them.
“Whatever they do in Washington, the voice of Venezuela, the voice of Cuba and the voice of Nicaragua will reach Los Angeles in the great protests of the people and our voice will be in that room (…) we will be there with our truth” said the president on May 24 in Caracas.
As the director of the Center for Political Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, Benigno Alarcón, explained to Efe, it is most likely that Maduro’s words hide the plan to organize protests in Los Angeles, parallel to the summit, as they did on occasions. both Venezuela and Nicaragua.
“What they’re going to try to do is what they’ve done other times, which is to fund some groups to protest where the summit is being held. They’ve done it other times and under other circumstances. They’ve funded groups that join a protest,” said Alarcón.
But neither the absence of these countries nor the demonstrations that can be organized around the summit are going to overshadow, in his opinion, the plan to promote a migration pact, as contemplated in the official agenda, quite the contrary.
For Alarcón, it should be the host countries of the migrants from the three excluded nations, with the US in the lead, that should address any issue that has to do with the agreement, so it will not affect the fact that the issuers are absent .
“Those who have to come to an agreement for this pact are the recipient countries, to see how many each receive and how they can help, and what capacity each country has to receive and other issues of interest in this matter,” said the Venezuelan expert.
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