Joe Biden throws a pinch hitter to the National Palace, after AMLO maintains his position of not going to the Summit of the Americas if Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are not invited. This is Chris Dodd, a man of all his confidence. Is it the last call to avoid a diplomatic conflict?
By Ave Velázquez and Aldo Canedo
EMEEQUIS.– Christopher Dodd is the one chosen by Joe Biden to come to Mexico on Wednesday, after the repeated refusal of López Obrador to attend the Summit of the Americas if all countries in the region are not invited, including Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
Wednesday arrives and presumably he will have the difficult task of persuading the Mexican president to leave behind his show of support for countries not invited by the Americans.
Chris Dodd is a very close and influential American politician in the Biden government. From an early age he has worked closely in Latin American countries such as the Dominican Republic, in addition to enlisting in the National Guard from 1969 to 1975.
On May 10, at a press conference, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador informed that, in the event that the United States did not convene all the countries of the region, he would not attend the event and would send the foreign minister on behalf of Marcelo Ebrard.
This derived from the declarations of the US government, in which they expressed that they saw “unlikely” the invitation to the Summit to countries such as Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua.
At said press conference, AMLO agreed when asked if his decision was an act of protest, adding:
“I don’t want the same policy to continue in America (…) we are here to join hands, to unite and even if we have differences we can resolve them, at least listening to each other, talking, but not excluding anyone,” he said.
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However, in a conference call with reporters, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, assured that “the White House will invite all the democratic governments of the region to the summit”.
Regarding the presidents Nicolás Maduro (Venezuela), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) or Miguel Díaz-Canel (Cuba), the official remarked: “It is unlikely that they will be there.”
The Summit of the Americas will be held from June 6 to 10 in Los Angeles, California and Christopher Dodd is expected to convince AMLO to be present and not accumulate a new disagreement with the United States.
Ebrard confirmed that Chris Dodd is coming.
Through his official social media account, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, announced the visit next Wednesday of the special adviser for the Summit of the Americas of President Joe Biden, Christopher J. Dodd, better known as Chris Dodd.
“In the Security Cabinet we review the Summit of the Americas. I have constant communication with Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States, and on Wednesday we welcome Christopher J. Dodd, special adviser for the Summit of the Americas to President Biden. I inform you of progress, ”he wrote in a tweet Ebrard.
WHO IS CHRISTOPHER DODD, THE ONE CHOSEN TO PERSUADE AMLO?
Chris Dodd was born on May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, Windham County, in the US state of Connecticut. He is married to Jackie Clegg Dodd and has two daughters, Grace and Christina. From a Catholic home, su ability with languages, particularly Spanish, made it easy for him to become a Peace Corps volunteer in 1996 after graduating from Providence College and working at Dominican Republic for two years.
Influenced by his father, also a senator and prosecutor from Nuremberg (against the Nazis), Thomas Dodd, and by his mother, Grace Murphy Dodd, his commitment to public service and human rights began at a very young age. In 1969, and until 1975, he enlisted in the National Guard, later beginning his service in the United States House of Representatives.
In 2016 he came to the Morelia Festival to talk about the future of Mexican cinema. Photo: @SenChrisDodd.
In 1980 he was elected to the Senate for the first time. Dodd was a strategic writer of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, as well as the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act and the Help America Vote Act, however, he is most recognized for having crafted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Actan initiative that sought a new strategy to regulate the use of banking and credit products that responded to the 2008 financial crisis.
He was a member of the US Senate from the state of Connecticut, CEO and President of the non-profit organization Motion Picture Association of Americawhich promotes and supports film production by creatives, filmmakers, and artists, as well as lobbying for anti-piracy policies.
On his Twitter account the description is quite short: “I watch movies”. He has multiple photos in which he is at film events such as the Oscars, Golden Globes or the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), where he came in 2016 to talk about the future of the Mexican film industry, in his capacity as presidente de Motion Picture Association.
EXTERNAL INFLUENT
During his tenure in the Senate within the Democratic PartyDodd served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1995 to 1997 and was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, according to local media such as the CT Poststate that Dodd:
“He was forced to address the lack of regulatory oversight of the nation’s financial system, the subprime crisis, the bailout of Wall Street and the bonuses paid to the executives of the companies that received ransom money, ”says the Connecticut digital newspaper.
BIDEN’S SECRET WEAPON
Dodd is for Biden a fundamental piece for the 9th Summit of the Americas, since since last April he has met with heads of state from countries such as Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti , among other member countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
The former senator told the media that the United States government wants all Caricom leaders to attend the meeting to discuss the climate change agenda, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters that have affected countries in the group. so his visit to Mexico may be of the same tone with President López Obrador.
However, Caricom’s position, according to the Trinidad and Tobago newspaper Guardian, is that the meeting be inclusive, with Venezuela and Cuba on the guest list, otherwise the joint decision could be not to attend.
Other countries such as Bolivia and Argentina have expressed opinions in support of the position of the Mexican president, although in the case of the Argentine president Albert Fernandez, Although he advocates inclusion, he stated that he will attend the Summit to be held in The Angels from June 6 to 10.
@emeequis
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