Mexican President won’t attend US-hosted Summit of the Americas due to exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela

By Kate Sullivan, Jeremy Diamond, Ana Cucalon and Mia Alberti, CNN

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday he won’t be attending the Summit of the Americas, hosted later on this week by the United States, due to the exclusion of several countries in the region.

Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were not invited to the summit because of the “lack of democratic space and the human rights situations” in the countries, a senior Biden administration official said in a statement to CNN on Monday. López Obrador had previously threatened to boycott the summit, which is traditionally attended by leaders from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean and is convened every few years.

“I am not going to the summit because not all American countries are invited and I believe the need to change the policy that has been in place for centuries: The exclusion, the desire to dominate without any reason, the disrespect of countries’ sovereignty (and) the independence of each country,” López Obrador said at a news conference in Mexico City. He said the country’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, will attend instead.

The move is a significant snub to President Joe Biden and his administration and threatens to undermine the gathering. The Biden administration has not yet provided an official list of invitations as it scrambled to address boycott threats from a group of countries led by Mexico over the exclusion of several countries.

Biden is slated to arrive at the summit in Los Angeles on Thursday.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.