(Los Angeles) The Summit of the Americas organized by Joe Biden in Los Angeles gave rise to major declarations on Thursday in favor of more cooperation on the continent, but also revealed tensions between certain countries and the United States.
Posted at 8:01 p.m.
Updated at 8:41 p.m.
The American president thus experienced a real moment of diplomatic embarrassment when the Prime Minister of Belize and then the Argentine President criticized him, in the middle of the plenary session of the event, and while he was seated a few meters away.
“It is inexcusable that all the countries of the Americas are not here”, declared the Prime Minister of Belize John Briceno, taking in particular the defense of Cuba and Venezuela which, like Nicaragua, were not invited by the United States.
Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez felt that “being the host country of the summit does not give the ability to decide who has the right or not” to participate.
Despite these disagreements over the list of participants, which have already led Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador to shun the summit, “on substantive issues, what I heard was almost unity and uniformity” , yet assured Joe Biden.
The American president notably pointed to “almost total agreement” on subjects such as the management of immigration and the fight against climate change.
The 79-year-old Democrat also displayed a conciliatory tone during his first bilateral meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, with whom there is however no lack of friction.
” Common points ”
He described Brazil as a “vibrant” democracy with “solid” institutions and praised the “sacrifices” made by the country to protect the Amazon rainforest, during a speech attended by journalists, before the meeting was held. actual meeting.
Jair Bolsonaro assured him that he had “a lot in common” with the American president, for example that of being “democrats” attached to “freedom”.
Photo JIM WATSON, Agence France-Presse
Jair Bolsonaro and Joe Biden
The far-right president, a notorious climate skeptic, however went there with his criticism of the Amazon rainforest, believing that Brazil felt “sometimes threatened in its sovereignty” on this subject.
The Brazilian head of state, again this week, publicly questioned the validity of his American counterpart’s victory.
Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking a second term, but who is outpaced in the polls by former President Lula, also regularly attacks his own country’s electoral system. As if he was already preparing to contest a defeat, which worries Washington.
The very organization of the Summit of the Americas, the second to take place in the United States since the first edition in 1994, has therefore shown that the question of what democracy is, and the means of defending it, does not enjoy a consensus in regional level.
The Biden administration nonetheless hopes to relaunch dialogue with a region that has not so far been at the top of its diplomatic priorities, and where China is advancing its pawns.
The United States has thus announced initiatives on health and the environment, as well as an economic partnership with rather vague contours, and wants to tackle Friday a major declaration of cooperation on immigration.
But the Americans do not intend to imitate Beijing, which is investing very heavily in the region, and prefer to encourage private financing.
This earned Joe Biden another sting from the prime minister of Belize, who referenced massive US aid to Ukraine and quipped: “The question is how much (money) will be promised to finance the ambitious program that we are giving ourselves? »