MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday he would not attend the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas if all countries in the region were not invited, and would send Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard in his place.
Lopez Obrador said during his regular news conference, just days after his trip to the Cuban capital Havana, that his absence at the summit in Los Angeles next month was unlikely to cause tensions with the United States.
U.S. officials have previously said it is unlikely Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government will receive an invitation to the summit that is meant to showcase democracy in the hemisphere.
“If they’re excluded, if not all are invited, a representative from the Mexican government would go, but I wouldn’t,” Lopez Obrador said.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
