Bungled Summit of Americas diplomatic nightmare for US

WANING INFLUENCE

The summit was doomed to failure from the very beginning, Cuban senior political expert Rafael Hernandez told Xinhua.

Instead of appealing to dialogue and engagement, he said, the US government continues to impose its views on the region through unilateral sanctions, punitive measures and intervention.

"The exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela from the list of invited countries to the summit has been counterproductive for US foreign policy, which uses coercion as a tool of political pressure," said Hernandez.

Diego Sequera, a Venezuelan journalist and political analyst, believes Washington's main objective is to use the summit to ensure economic, commercial and geopolitical control in the region.

However, that goal "has been increasingly undermined" by a "fractured and devalued" summit that fails to represent the Americas, Sequera said.

While Latin America has changed and is no longer the US backyard, Washington's policy towards Latin America has not yet changed, said observers.

"They act as the arbiters of what democracy, human rights and freedom are. That is not a basis for engagement in a dialogue in the western hemisphere, which is politically speaking more diverse than ever," Hernandez said.

The US government does not promote multilateralism and international cooperation, but narrowly defines democracy, whereas others understand it to be about participation, pluralism and diversity, Hernandez added.

Little wonder Washington's influence in the Latin American and Caribbean political arena has waned over the past decade.

That means the United States has lost its leadership role in the region, which in turn limits the real scope or importance of the Summit of the Americas, Roldan said.

"We live in a different world ... There are new institutions, new rules and that is what we are experiencing today," said Roldan. "The United States is going to have to understand that it neglected Latin America and we are not its backyard. Latin America is giving itself respect."