The United States will host the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California in June 2022 with a focus on “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future” for our hemisphere. [6 June 2022 to 10 June 2022 with the Los Angeles Convention Center the primary venue.]

United States Department of State
Washington DC
15 April 2022

Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols and Population, Refugees, and Migration Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Marta Youth On Secretary Blinken’s Upcoming Travel to Panama- Via Teleconference

Excerpts

ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: Well, we’re working on addressing the root causes of migration as a collective effort, and one of the things that I think has been quite powerful in the near term has been Vice President Harris’ call to action, which has mobilized over $1.2 billion in private sector investment in Northern Central America and created thousands of jobs in that part of the hemisphere. And we know that those people are not migrating. We know that our efforts to provide COVID-19 vaccines to countries throughout the hemisphere – some 60 million vaccines in the Western Hemisphere – have helped countries recover more quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic which was a driver of migration to our southern border. We know that our efforts to provide assistance to communities that are hosting migrants in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile have all helped stabilize those populations to a greater degree. But this comes in the context of literally millions of migrants on the move in our hemisphere; some six million Venezuelans are migrants outside of Venezuela right now, over five million of them in the Western Hemisphere. There are half a million Nicaraguans who are displaced and living in Costa Rica right now, and I had the opportunity to meet with some of them when I was there a couple weeks ago. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants in Chile, in Brazil.

QUESTION: Great. Thank you. Two questions here. First, will any representatives of the Maduro government be present for the ministerial? And can any agreement – hemisphere-wide agreement solve the migration crisis without addressing Venezuela’s political, economic, and humanitarian crises?
And then second, the administration has announced plans to admit up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. What impact would that have on your plans to admit – or process asylum claims at the border or otherwise address migration issues? Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: So the Maduro regime will not attend the ministerial. The – obviously the lack of access to opportunity, democracy, human rights, the rule of law inside the borders of Venezuela has led many Venezuelans to vote with their feet and depart that country. Our goal is to encourage the Maduro regime and the interim government to return to the negotiating table in Mexico City where Venezuela negotiated and led solution to that country’s problems. We continue to support that effort and believe it has the best prospects for a lasting solution to Venezuela’s problems.

QUESTION: Thanks. I just had a follow-up to my colleague Conor’s question on the Maduro regime, and you said that no representatives from that regime are attending the ministerial. Could you just advise as to whether or not any representatives from the regime were invited to attend? Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: Not to my knowledge.

QUESTION: Thank you. You have mentioned a couple of times that this meeting in Panama is in preparation for the Summit of the Americas. So I was wondering if the United States has invited Cuba and Venezuela to the Summit of the Americas. Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: So the White House will determine which leaders are invited to the Summit of the Americas, and the White House has not yet issued invitations. I will note that the Western Hemisphere is a part of the world that has a broad commitment to democracy, as enshrined in the Inter-American Democratic Charter. And I believe that as we move forward, we will see countries that share that commitment toward democracy as the key participants in the summit.

LINKS To Related Analyses

"Ninth Summit of the Americas" Scheduled For 6 June 2022 To 10 June 2022 In Los Angeles, California. Cuba And Venezuela Should Be Invited- And Both Countries Should Participate. January 19, 2022

Might Cuba And Venezuela Participate In 2021 Summit Of The Americas? Might They Be Required To Participate? October 31, 2020