The Summit of (Some of) the Americas

If the summit was intended to be a display of revitalized U.S. leadership in the hemisphere, it will likely fall far short of that.

As expected, the Biden administration has officially refused to invite Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua to the Summit of the Americas:

The Biden administration has made a final decision against inviting the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to a regional summit this week, bucking calls from Mexico’s president to include all countries or risk him staying home.

The exclusion of these countries from the summit is a mistake, and it is already having unfortunate consequences for the summit. The Mexican president’s threat to boycott was not an idle one, which means the leader of one of the largest countries in the Americas will not be participating in the event. My colleague Kelley Vlahos and I discussed the administration’s mishandling of the summit preparations on our podcast last week, and we agreed that Biden was shooting himself in the foot by refusing to invite these three governments. If the summit was intended to be a display of revitalized U.S. leadership in the hemisphere, it will likely fall far short of that. If it can teach the U.S. a lesson in humility in its relations with our hemispheric neighbors, perhaps it will not be a total waste.