Countries like Cuba and Nicaragua were not invited due to their situation.
The United States, according to experts, left for several years, for various reasons, room for other powers to increase their influence. For example, China. However, current president Joe Biden, an old political fox, seems to want to restore the position of leader of the free world despite any criticism of the country in its past and present actions.
An example of this is the so-called “Summit of Democracy” that is organized on December 9 and 10, electronically and will focus on three themes: defense against authoritarianism, the fight against corruption and the promotion of respect for the human rights, as explained by the White House.
According to the analyst Esteban Santos, this is a summit whose initiative is to reposition the United States as a hegemonic actor within its area of influence.
“I think it will be more interesting to give an analysis once this summit takes place … everything will depend on who ends up appearing and if the three thematic axes are simply given a common statement or this can come out, that would be what is interesting, some type of cooperation, concrete aid or something else that is not just a common statement, “adds Santos, for whom it will also be necessary to wait if a second face-to-face call is made later.
A sample of the trend of the summit is that Biden invited the leader of the opposition of Venezuela Juan Guaidó, whom he still recognizes as interim president of the South American country in detriment of Nicolás Maduro, who maintains internal power.
“We thank President Joe Biden and his Administration for the invitation to the democracy summit. We fight to recover democracy in Venezuela by facing a dictatorship, “wrote Guaidó on his Twitter account.
On November 30, the head of US diplomacy for Latin America, Brian A. Nichols, confirmed President Biden’s invitation to Guaidó to participate in the summit.
Nichols made these statements at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Committee in response to the president of that entity, Democrat Bob Menéndez, who expressly asked him if the summit of democracies would have the participation of Guaidó, to which the US and other countries recognize him as interim president of Venezuela.
After arriving at the White House in January of this year, Biden decided to maintain the recognition of Guaidó as interim president expressed in 2019 by his predecessor, Donald Trump, but during these months he has not made Venezuela a priority of his foreign policy.
Meanwhile, the Cuban regime criticized President Biden’s initiative, to which Havana has not been invited.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez assured on Twitter that this “selective” call shows only the “weakness” of the United States and its international isolation.
Biden to this forum 110 allied governments whom he considers democracies. In the western hemisphere, it leaves out Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Regarding the last three, the United States Government indicated that they suffer from “some challenges” in terms of democracy.
The event, which will also include members of civil society and the private sector, will have a session of the heads of state sponsored by Biden himself, and another thematic, with the presence of government and non-government representatives, indicates EFE.
Among the guests are allies whom he considers democracies, such as Spain, France, Israel, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Paper of the press
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) and the Institute for Democracy International IDEA asked US President Joe Biden to include freedom of the press in the discussions at the Summit for Democracy to be held next week in a manner virtual among leaders of 110 countries.
In a letter sent to President Biden, Jorge Canahuati, president of the IAPA, and Kevin Casas Zamora, secretary general of International IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), expressed that in many countries freedom of the press and expression are under siege by “anti-democratic regimes and totalitarian forces.”
Both emphasized that freedom of expression and of the press are essential values of democracy, as they appear in the First Amendment of the United States, in almost all the Constitutions of the American countries and in the documents of the IAPA.
The objective of the forum is to establish an agenda for democratic renewal and examine the greatest threats facing democracies, he recalls EFE.
The IAPA highlights that several of the uninvited countries of Latin America obtained the lowest scores in the Chapultepec Index 2021 carried out by the press organization.
This IAPA measurement assesses the performance of freedom of expression and of the press in the legal, judicial and violent contexts in each country, in addition to analyzing the impact that these variables have on democracy. (I)
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