Inflation and election year politics overshadow Biden’s Latin America summit

Visitors to the Ninth Summit of the Americas could not escape the boycott led by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador over the invitation list, despite Washington’s insistence that it would not affect the substantive outcomes of the meetings.

Instead, Biden faced a barrage of criticism from other leaders upset by his decision not to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua while failing to quell the skepticism that had taken hold by the summit’s start. In particular, banner economic and migration initiatives fell short, observers said. Among the absentees were the heads of three Central American countries that have experienced massive emigration to the United States.

Biden’s top aides said he did not regret withholding invitations from autocrats, with his press secretary calling the decision a matter of principle.

But Oscar, a Los Angeles resident of 17 years who spent the week ferrying visiting dignitaries and federal officials to and from events, said a senior Mexican delegate told him there were “lots of topics they didn’t touch because of the presidents that couldn’t make it.”

White House officials had argued that the boycott would change little, with Biden’s national security adviser insisting that the “substantive work of the summit has in no way, shape, or form, been touched, or adjusted, or reduced by the participation question.” Jake Sullivan noted Mexico’s intent to sign a migration pact as evidence of “these two things operating in entirely distinct leagues.”

True to Sullivan’s remark, Mexico signed the Los Angeles Declaration in a public ceremony as the summit concluded, along with 19 other Western Hemisphere countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the heads of state of which had also stayed away.

“We’re putting a lot of skin in the game,” a senior administration official said of the declaration before conceding that, in part, “it is an expansion of things that we’re already doing.”

The administration’s assurances persuaded few, however.

“They need a partner, and they didn’t get that message here,” said Marcelo Quiroga, a program director for the Caribbean region at the International Republican Institute, during an event following the end of the summit attended by regional heads of state and government and Biden’s U.N. ambassador. Quiroga told the Washington Examiner that the U.S. was ceding ground to China in the region as trade flows between Beijing and the Western Hemisphere trend upwards.

“The U.S. is losing a lot of space,” he said. “And it doesn’t seem to worry.”

Ryan Berg, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, described many of the proposals as “light on details,” with some “using only existing U.S. frameworks.” Berg called himself “underwhelmed” by the summit’s outcomes.

“I can’t help but feel that there were lost opportunities,” Berg said. “This could have been a splashier event, with more aspirational, ambitious initiatives announced. Instead, the lack of a robust agenda opened the door to political theater by some leaders and an incessant focus on the guest list.”

Some wondered whether Biden’s choice to leave Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua off the invitation list arose from the political considerations that former President Donald Trump once summed up in one word: “Miami.”

Biden was across town, attending the first of two high-dollar fundraisers in Brentwood Friday when a Democratic congress member suggested another consideration at play.

“It’s a midterm election year. Florida is important,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) told the Washington Examiner at the Jonathan Club across town. “Is that what’s behind the decision? Not all of it. But that’s one factor.”

Espaillat suggested the move was counterproductive. “You can’t have a conversation in an echo chamber,” he said, adding, “Not everybody has to agree with you.”

Others argued that the administration’s weak engagement on the continent could aggravate many of the problems Washington wanted to solve.

“I get it. He’s busy,” Quiroga said of Biden. “But the region is important, and if he doesn’t pay attention, you’re going to have a whole lot of migrants coming in, not only from Cuba but the other countries, including the Caribbean. They need support.”

Not everyone was focused on Latin America’s most urgent needs. Across the room, some guests wondered whether one woman, her face partially obscured by a dark mask, was Hollywood actress Bo Derek.

The blockwide security perimeter around the towering Los Angeles InterContinental hotel became a point of frustration for local residents attempting to move around downtown. “This entire summit has been annoying because they got rid of all the scooters,” one local Democratic consultant complained to the Washington Examiner.

Still, others appeared barely to notice, nodding off in doorways, a reminder of the city’s troubles, which visiting officials remarked on privately.

Biden began shifting gears before the summit concluded, forgoing the leaders’ plenary sessions and civil society round tables to spend the morning at the Port of Los Angeles to defend his administration’s inflation-countering measures as new price data spiked above expectations.

He returned to the summit for a working lunch with other leaders and to sign the migration declaration before capping the brief interlude with back-to-back Democratic National Committee fundraisers, his first in-person in Los Angeles since taking office.

In remarks to some 30 guests at the home of Andrew Hauptman and Seagram heiress Ellen Bronfman, first lady Jill Biden defended the president’s handling of the summit and pushed back on concerns that Democrats are buckling ahead of the midterm elections under a leader who has failed to reckon with economic troubles.

The first lady said that at a dinner, “Every leader came up to Joe and said, ‘What a difference you’ve made. It’s so great that you’re here. It’s so great that we’re working together.’”

The president “is working as hard as he can,” she added. “There’s so many naysayers out there saying, ‘Oh, you’re never going to win the midterm elections, and the Democrats aren’t going to do well.’ That’s not true. That’s not true. You know, we just have to fight a little bit harder. We can’t lose our momentum.”

But the president is facing doubts about his political viability in office and economic headwinds that threaten to short-circuit his party in elections as voters sour on his administration’s handling of the economy. With inflation running at a four-decade high, polls show people increasingly worried about the toll of rising prices for gasoline and everyday goods.

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At a second fundraiser at the home of Democratic megadonor Haim Saban, Biden warned that Americans would need “to live with this inflation for a while,” adding that it “is going to come down gradually.”

Others fear that today’s price pressures are just the start. Oscar said any pain the U.S. feels would compound south of the border. “The recession is coming. They don’t say it, but it’s coming,” said Oscar. “If it’s going to affect the U.S., imagine how it’s going to affect all the South.”