When the continent’s leaders meet this week in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, the focus is likely to shift from implementing policy changes on common issues — migration, climate change and inflation. runaway—and move on to something hot for Hollywood: red-carpet drama.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador heads a list of leaders threatening to stay home to protest the United States’ exclusion of the authoritarian rulers of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the summit, prompting some experts to say the event could become a source of embarrassment for US President Joe Biden.
Even some progressive Democrats have criticized the government for giving in to pressure from Cuban exiles in the state of Florida and excluding socialist Cuba, which attended the last two summits.
“The real question is why didn’t the Biden administration do its homework,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former Mexican foreign secretary who now teaches at New York University.
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