Biden Launches Americas Summit to Protect Migration

U.S. President Joe Biden launched the Americas summit on Friday to pitch a plan designed to stem illegal migration and manage record migrant numbers.

Dubbed the "Los Angeles Declaration" and described by Biden as "ground-breaking", the U.S.-led pact aims to create incentives for countries taking in large numbers of migrants and spread responsibility for the challenge across the region.

At the summit's opening session on Thursday, leaders from Argentina and Belize took to the podium to rebuke Biden face-to-face over the guest list, highlighting the challenge the global superpower faces in restoring its influence among its poorer neighbors.

Last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador affirmed that he won’t attend the Summit of the Americas.

López Obrador had previously threatened to skip the summit if the Biden administration didn’t invite countries like Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

“There cannot be a summit if all countries are not invited,” López Obrador said. “Or there can be one but that is to continue with all politics of interventionism.”

A senior U.S. official explained that these countries did not receive invitations over human rights concerns and their “lack of democratic space.”

Nevertheless, López Obrador noted that his foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, will lead the Mexican delegation in his absence.