LOS ANGELES – President Joe Biden tried to present a unifying vision for the Western Hemisphere but the Summit of the Americas quickly spilled into open discord in a telling illustration of the difficulties of bringing North and South America together around shared goals on migration, the economy and climate.
“There is no reason why the Western Hemisphere can´t be the most forward looking, most democratic, most prosperous, most peaceful, secure region in the world,” Biden said at the start of the summit according to AP. “We have unlimited potential.”
Quick on the heels of Biden’s remarks, Belize Prime Minister John Briceno publicly objected to countries being excluded from the summit by the US and to the continued US embargo on Cuba.
“This summit belongs to all of the Americas – it is therefore inexcusable that there are countries of the Americas that are not here, and the power of the summit is diminished by their absence,” Briceno said.
“At this most critical juncture, when the future of our hemisphere is at stake, we stand divided. And that is why the Summit of the Americas should have been inclusive. Geography, not politics, defines the Americas.”
Biden faced additional criticism from Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández.
“We definitely would have wished for a different Summit of the Americas,” Fernandez said in Spanish.
“The silence of those who are absent is calling to us. So this does not happen again, I would like to say, for the future, the fact that a country is the host country of the summit does not have the ability to impose the right of admission on member countries of the continent.”
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