U.S. official explains why Juan Guaidó didn’t get an invite to the Summit of the Americas
.JPG "President Joe Biden, center, participates in a family photo with heads of delegations including Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, left, Colombian President IvÃ(degrees)n Duque, second from left, Paraguay President Mario Abdo Benitez, second from right, and Panama President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, right, at the Summit of the Americas, Friday, June 10, 2022, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)")
Eighteen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including major emitters of migrants to the United States like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, have joined a regional partnership led by the Biden administration to address historical flows of migrants to its southern border, Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Brian A. Nichols told the Miami Herald in an exclusive interview.
Nichols, who has been participating in the negotiations over the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration taking place among regional leaders during the Summit of the Americas this week in L.A., also spoke about policies toward Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti.
The following conversation has been slightly edited for clarity.
Q: Let’s start with migration. How are you all going to address the fact that countries responsible for large migrant flows are not signing this agreement?
A: Well, we have a great participation, 18 countries from North America, South America, Central America, Caribbean participating.
Q: Are those countries the ones that are going to sign this agreement?
A: So, it is a statement of principle, and a framework for cooperation that’s going to help us address issues like stabilizing populations in place, coordinating among migration authorities, providing resources to communities that host migrants, and providing legal pathways and opportunities for resettlement for migrant populations. Things like work visas, agricultural worker visas. Those types of steps, collectively, are a way to advance a holistic solution to the challenges of migration. Right now around the globe there are over 100 million migrants on the move.
Q: Did Central American countries actually commit to this plan?
A: So we have, it’s a North American country, but we have Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia. They’re all committing.
Q: Some of the things the U.S. wants these countries to do, like enforcing border security, require training, technology and funding. Where’s this money going to come from?
A: Well, one of the pieces of this is a robust network of support from multilateral development banks around our region to help finance the nations’ efforts. The United States will provide bilateral assistance to a number of countries in our region to help them manage this issue. Many of the things like information sharing are not particularly costly. Obviously, some of the support to migrants in-country can be expensive. And since 2019, the United States has provided robust assistance to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, countries in Central America to help them manage their migrant populations. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in the Bahamas and met with Haitian migrants there who received support both bilaterally from the United States, as well as from the International Organization for Migration. And the U.N. High Commission, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees also provides support for migrant populations in our hemisphere, and we’re encouraging more countries to donate to those multilateral organizations to help support that.
Q: Some heads of state from Belize and Argentina criticize the United States for not inviting Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. And so there seems to be disagreement in the region about what democracy really is. Is there concern about this, about divisions in the region?
A: So we appreciate the views of our partners around the hemisphere. If you look at the framework that this summit and previous summits have, and including things like the Inter American Democratic Charter, you know, this is a region that prioritizes democracy. But one of the five political commitments coming out of this summit is one on democracy. And it talks very specifically and in detail about the importance of free and fair elections, the importance of allowing electoral observation of elections of independent electoral administration authorities, the role of civil society, and the free press in countries and the importance of protecting those people who carry out that role. So things very, very specifically that are constantly and daily violated in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Q: How can you explain that the U.S. recognizes Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela and at the same time, he was not invited, nor any of the representatives of his government, to the summit?
A: So we are very focused on promoting a return to the negotiating table between the Venezuelan Opposition Unitary Platform, and the [Nicolás] Maduro regime. We believe that that provides the best path for a return to democracy in Venezuela. We believe that that’s the best way forward, we’re going to support that. And we’re willing to make changes to our policies in response to concrete progress in negotiations.
Q: But why not invite him?
A: We also have to navigate, you know, all of the recognitions and concerns of our partners around the Summit of the Americas. And there are divides between countries as to who recognizes the interim government, which we believe is the most authentic representation of the democratic will of the Venezuelan people, and those who recognize the Maduro regime. And in the end, you know, we felt that the best way to do that was to have neither the Maduro regime nor the interim government president. But there was an excellent conversation between Presidents Biden and interim president Juan Guaidó just the other day, and we believe that the strong relationship that we have with the interim government will continue.
Q: I heard that there’s some efforts from within administration to get some of the July 11 protesters released in Cuba. I wonder if you can share any details about that, if that’s an idea the Cuban government has been open about or receptive? And if so, what would it take for them to release some of these prisoners?
A: Well, at the time that this great debate about who would attend the Summit of the Americas was going on, Cuba was putting on trial nonviolent protesters, including minors and civil society members from the July protests. The fact that in response to the concerns that we and others expressed about human rights and free speech in Cuba, that they would not only put people on trial or arrest them, but put them on active trials at that moment when people like the United States were expressing concerns and saying, well, if you’re really interested in participating, if you have some interest in democracy and human rights, show us, and they did the opposite. They moved forward with these trials, and they ignored us. And President Miguel Diaz-Canel said, ‘I will not go to the summit, even if I am invited.’
Q: Recently, 148 Haitians were massacred. What would it take for the U.S. to consider this not as gang warfare but civil war? What would it take for the United States to consider tougher strategies on Haiti?
A: So our ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield and I met with Prime Minister [Ariel] Henry yesterday. We talked about issues of security and Haiti and the renewal of the U.N. Mission in Haiti. So we’re looking at what the structure of that mission would be going forward and making sure that it is properly equipped to deal with the security issues in Haiti. Obviously, whatever we do in the international community has to support Haitian efforts to build security and to find a negotiated solution and way forward to reestablish full democracy in Haiti.
The United States at this moment, as well as many of our international partners, are providing robust assistance to the Haitian National Police, particularly in the U.S. case, in training and equipping both anti-gang task forces and special weapons and tactics units within the Haitian National Police and that’s being done through the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement State Department. But it’s not just the United States providing assistance: Canada, providing assistance, Japan is providing assistance, and France is providing assistance, but growing a police force takes time. You have to train the officers, you have to make sure they are equipped, and you have to make sure that they’re resourced. And we’re in that ongoing process. And we recognize that the situation for average Haitians is deeply worrisome with regard to security, and kidnapping and crime remain at alarming levels. And we in the international community have to do more and better to support the Haitian people.
I will note that that’s something in addition to the meeting that we had yesterday with the Haitian Prime Minister, our collective support was something that the foreign ministers, the U.S., Canada and Mexico, discussed in their trilateral meeting, which just concluded about an hour ago. And it’s something that we raised with our partners. There’ll be another donor meeting to support Haiti coming up soon at the ministerial level. And, you know, we believe that our continued efforts are vital. And we’re not going to stop until we give the Haitian people the better future that they deserve.
Q: And when do you think this transition will happen, the elections? Is there a timeline?
The first step is naming counselors for the provisional electoral council in Haiti. And we’ve encouraged the prime minister of Haiti and civil society groups, particularly the Montana group, to come together and select counselors as a way to prepare for elections so that the international community can support with technical assistance, and financial resources and make sure that preparations can take place in a secure environment that candidates can campaign without fear and that voters can go to the polls in a peaceful way.
Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 5:46 PM.