The Latin American countries that Biden did not invite to the world democracy forum (and what he says about US policy in the region)

If you read in alphabetical order the countries of the Americas that are invited to participate in the summit for democracy that celebrates USA, the absences draw attention from the second letter.

Bolivia is outside.

Brazil, inside.

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And so on: several nations of the hemisphere are on the list of the virtual event that the American president, Joe Biden, carries out this Thursday and Friday with more than a hundred invited countries.

But other governments in the region are missing, and some of these absences surprise experts in hemispheric relations.

The list of guests is “very rare,” Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based regional analysis center, told BBC Mundo.

A promise from Biden

In total, eight countries in Latin America and the Caribbean were excluded from calling the meeting: in addition to Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The summit is a campaign promise from Biden, who has called for defending democracy in a global context of threats to it.

Bolivia, chaired by Luis Arce, was left out of the Biden summit. (GETTY IMAGES).

Several countries from other regions were also excluded from the meeting, including China and Russia, as well as US allies in NATO. like Turkey and Hungary, where Washington sees growing democratic challenges.

Biden’s goal is for those who participate in the summit to reach commitments to face shared challenges, respect human rights and fight corruption.

According to Shifter, it was “Fully expected” that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua would be excluded from the meeting, which in his opinion and that of Washington are governed by “dictators.”

“What surprises me, and I find it difficult to explain, is why they are excluded the three countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America, given the importance of these countries for the United States ”, he explained.

Indeed, Biden has sought to work with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to attack the causes of emigration to the US, such as corruption, violence and poverty.

Biden has sought support from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to contain migration to the US, but excluded these countries from his summit for democracy. (GETTY IMAGES)

While the White House is concerned about the challenges to democracy in those countries, Shifter maintained that “they are not dictatorships properly: they have corrupt governments and everything else, but there are other corrupt governments that are included” in the list.

“Another case that also draws attention is the exclusion of Bolivia and the invitation to Brazil, which has more or less similar indicators of democracy“, said.

In the last annual evaluation of civil liberties and political rights by country carried out by Freedom House, an NGO based in Washington, Bolivia obtained 66 points out of a possible 100, more than other countries in the region invited to the summit such as Paraguay (65), Colombia (65) or Mexico (61).

These countries fell into the category of “partially free” nation, that is, between “free” and “not free”.

Brazil (74) is listed as a “free” country but lost points in the ranking in recent years and its president, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, has been accused by critics of eroding democracy.

“No democracy is perfect”

Asked about the criteria used to summon and exclude countries from the Americas, a spokesman for the US Department of State. avoided confirming or denying specific invitations.

“This summit aims to include a regionally and socio-economically diverse list of emerging and well-established democracies,” the spokesperson told BBC Mundo.

And he recognized that “no democracy is perfect.”

Mexico, chaired by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is one of Biden’s guests at the virtual meeting. (GETTY IMAGES)

But analysts like Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation, believe there were geopolitical or other reasons for determining who is attending.

“The presence of leaders from Brazil, India and Mexico – whose commitment to democracy is highly questionable – suggests that the strategic considerations from Washington also played a role in making the invitations, ”Stuenkel wrote in a column for the publication. Americas Quarterly this week.

In his view, the summit could still benefit the region if it focuses on domestic challenges to democracy such as inequality, polarization, fake news or the militarization of politics.

In fact, what few argue is that democracy is going through a delicate moment in the world and in the American continent in particular, including the US as shown by the invasion of the Capitol in January by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

The invasion of the Capitol in January marked one of the lowest points of US democracy (GETTY IMAGES)

Some governments absent from the Biden summit have reacted.

China, which the Freedom House ranking has just 9 points out of 100 and is listed as “not free,” argued that “there is no fixed model of democracy.”

Cuba, with 13 points in the same measurement and also classified as “not free”, pointed out through its Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez that “the selective convocation of a summit that claims to be about democracy it is a sign of US weakness.”.

If anything, the list seems to reflect that the Biden administration still lacks a clear and predictable policy toward Latin America.

And the absence of the Northern Triangle countries from the summit may be “counterproductive” for Washington’s own interests, Shifter warned.

“The reading of these countries of their exclusion is not going to mean that they will have to dedicate themselves more to strengthening their democracies,” he said. “Rather, they will be more challenging, they will collaborate less on migration issues and they will be more willing to collaborate with China, which seeks to expand its influence in that region.”

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