Islam Times - South and Central American leaders boycott Biden's Americas Summit

Islam Times - The United States has invited leaders of South and Central American countries to participate in the so called Summit of the Americas. The Summit, which runs from June the sixth to 10th in Los Angeles, is officially aimed at strengthening hemispheric solidarity.

The conference comes amid growing US involvement in the war in Ukraine and rising strategic rivalries between Beijing and Washington over hegemonic control of the Global South.

The summit is seen as an attempt to assert Washington's hegemonic ambitions over what it considers to be its own backyard. However, it appears that countries in the region are not willing to bow down to US ambitions.

The US administration has decided against inviting the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the regional Summit of the Americas, risking an embarrassing boycott of the Washington hosted gathering by regional leaders.

Furthermore, leaders from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, have all refused to participate in the Americas Summit due to Washington's policy of exclusion having refused to invite Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba to the gathering.

Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, slammed Washington's policy of exclusion and said the US state needs to change its desire to dominate the world without any reason. There cannot be an America Summit, if not all the continents countries participate.

Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, praised the Mexican president's courage and clarity for choosing not to attend the summit, clarifying that the US government decision to exclude free countries is an act of discrimination which ensures that the summit will fail.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric Fonte also criticized the US exclusion of South American countries and said that it was not the right path.

US hegemonic ambitions for South America dates back to the early 19th century and are in keeping with the Monroe Doctrine, which was formulated by James Monroe, the fifth US president, in 1823. It officially declares that region to be within the sphere of US influence.

Under the Roosevelt corollary, the doctrine named after President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States was justified in using police power to end chronic crises in the Western Hemisphere.

The policy has paved the way for numerous US interventions in the region; the occupation of Nicaragua and Haiti in the first two decades of the 20th century, the CIA operation in Guatemala in 1953, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, the coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973 and the invasion of Grenada in 1983 are just some of those interventions.

However, the fact that US hegemonic ambitions are being questioned by Latin American states is seen as the beginning of the falling influence of the United States in its own backyard.

With the rising influence of China and Russia in Latin America, the US finds itself in a weaker position than before. Under the Trump administration the US did whatever it could do to topple Venezuela's government but to no avail. And now the New Leftist turn amongst Latin American countries could be another blow to US imperialist desires in the region.