US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday (06.08.2022) that disagreements can be resolved in democracy “with mutual respect and dialogue”, when he opened the Summit of the Americas boycotted by several leaders of the region due to discrepancies with Washington.
Democracy “is the essential ingredient for the future,” said the president in Los Angeles, the city that is home to the largest Hispanic community in the United States.
“Our region is large and diverse. We don’t always agree on everything, but in a democracy we approach our disagreements with mutual respect and dialogue,” he said.
This summit is marked by the boycott of some heads of state, particularly those of Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia and Honduras.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, reproaches the White House for having excluded the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, whom Washington has not invited because it considers that they fail to meet democratic standards.
“Democracy is a hallmark of our region” as stated in the Inter-American Democratic Charter, said the president during the inauguration, in which the protagonists were children and young people who sang, danced and presented the countries to the public.
Biden urged attendees, who included representatives from civil society and the private sector, to unite “around bold ideas, ambitious actions, and demonstrating to our people that the incredible power of democracies brings concrete benefits and improves lives.” of all”.
“It is no longer just the question of what will the United States do for the Americas? The question is what can we achieve by working together as true partners with diverse abilities but with mutual and equal respect, recognizing both our individual sovereignty and our shared responsibilities,” he said. .
Since arriving at the White House in January 2021, Biden has insisted that Latin America is not America’s backyard and that he wants a relationship between equals.
gs (afp, efe, ap)
