Boycotts and counter-boycotts threaten Biden’s Summit of the Americas

The U.S.-led Summit of the Americas looks to be at its weakest point in two decades.

Not since its third and fourth editions (Quebec 2001 and Mar del Plata 2005) — when the anti-globalization movement and Latin American ‘Pink Tide’ governments brought massive protests and a large counter-agenda to the event — has the continent’s largest superpower faced such resistance in the build up to the meeting.

It all started when the State Department’s top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, Brian Nichols, said he didn’t expect Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela to receive invites. “Cuba, Nicaragua, and the [Nicolás] Maduro regime [in Venezuela] do not respect the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and therefore I don’t expect their presence,” Mr. Nichols argued.

Although the list of invites has not been made official yet — and reports suggest there are divisions within the Biden administration on who should ultimately be included — Mr. Nichols’ words were enough to trigger unrest, as top leaders in the region said they would not attend the meeting if others were left out. The summit is scheduled for the week of June 6-10 in Los Angeles.

“If everyone is not invited, a representative of the Mexican government will go, but I won’t,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel “AMLO” López Obrador said on Tuesday. “I don’t want the same policy to continue in America, and I...