US Business

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged leaders of the Americas to prove that democracy works as he laid out plans to boost economic cooperation and improve health and food access in a region where China has been making growing inroads.

Welcoming leaders to Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, Biden acknowledged differences — with Mexico’s leader refusing to come — but made an impassioned plea for democracy as the best way forward.

“When democracy is under assault around the world, let us unite again and renew our conviction that democracy is not only the defining feature of American histories, but the essential ingredient to Americas’ future,” Biden said. 

“At this summit, we have an opportunity for us to come together around some bold ideas, ambitious actions, and to demonstrate to our people the incredible power of democracy.”

In a theater that plays host to the Emmys, delegations snacking on popcorn watched a Caribbean-influenced dance show choreographed by Emilio Estefan and listened to pop star Sheila E who, in a fitting choice, covered The Beatles’ “Come Together.”

Biden laid out a new regionwide economic plan that was large on ideas but short on commitments, with no promises of further market access or funding.

In an echo of US political debates, Biden said that the United States was looking for economic growth “from the bottom up and the middle out and not the top down.”

“What was true in the United States is true in every country — ‘trickle-down economics’ does not work,” he said to applause.

– More than ‘state dollars’ –

In an implicit contrast to Beijing, Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said the United States was worried less about flashy announcements than about supporting more inclusive growth.

“The United States has never seen its comparative advantages in the world as just leveraging huge numbers of state dollars, but rather leveraging all of the tools available to us,” he told reporters on Air Force One.

Biden announced an initiative worth $300 million to tackle food insecurity — on the rise as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupts grain exports — by coordinating with the hemisphere’s major agriculture nations including Argentina, Brazil and Canada.

The White House also announced a new Americas Health Corps that aims to improve the skills of 500,000 health workers across the region, building on the lessons from Covid-19, which hit the Western Hemisphere especially hard.

China has stepped up its role in Latin America during the pandemic, moving early to supply vaccines, and US nemesis Cuba has long exported its state-employed doctors. 

The announcement comes a day after Vice President Kamala Harris detailed $1.9 billion in private sector investment in impoverished and violence-ravaged El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The troubles in the so-called Northern Triangle, as well as Haiti, have generated a soaring number of migrants to the United States, setting off a domestic furor as Donald Trump’s Republican Party demands efforts to stop them.

– Meeting with ‘Tropical Trump’ –

Draining US diplomatic energy ahead of the summit, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to attend as he insisted that Biden invite the leftist leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, shunned on the grounds that they are autocrats.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard attended in Obrador’s stead. Speaking to his counterparts, Ebrard called the exclusion of the three countries “a strategic error” and said Mexico would look at ways to reform regional institutions.

Biden will have a potentially awkward first meeting Thursday with President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Latin America’s most populous nation. 

A Trump supporter, Bolsonaro has raised doubts about the legitimacy both of upcoming voting in Brazil and, on the eve of his trip, of Biden’s own election.

Sullivan said that Biden would not shy away from the topic and would discuss the importance of “open, free, fair, transparent democratic elections.”

The Summit of the Americas is the first in the United States since the inaugural edition in 1994 was held in Miami under Bill Clinton, who proposed a free-trade zone that would span the hemisphere — but exclude communist-ruled Cuba.

The White House billed Biden’s summit as an update to Clinton’s vision. But the US political mood has since dramatically soured on free trade, with Trump rising to power denouncing liberalization as harmful to US workers. 

The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity announced by Biden will look at coordinating on standards and supply chains but will not offer new market access — a key incentive offered to the region by China, with its billion-plus consumer market.

Biden last month similarly unveiled an Asian partnership on setting economic standards as he visited Tokyo.

But unlike in Asia, the United States already has free trade deals with a number of major Latin American nations including Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

Ukrainian soldiers in Severodonetsk are fighting “one of the most difficult” battles against Russian troops since the start of the war, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding the fate of the whole Donbas region rests in the eastern city.

Moscow’s forces are concentrating their firepower on the strategically important industrial hub as part of efforts to capture a swathe of eastern Ukraine.

After days of raging street battles, Ukrainian officials conceded that Russian troops control a large part of Severodonetsk, and that their forces might have to pull back due to constant shelling.

In his evening address to the nation, Zelensky said the battle for the city was “very fierce… very difficult. Probably one of the most difficult throughout this war.

“In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there.”

After being repelled from Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine following their February invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops have refocused their offensive on the Donbas region, comprising Lugansk and Donetsk.

The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are separated by a river, were the last areas still under Ukrainian control in Lugansk.

Lysychansk is still in Ukrainian hands but under fierce Russian bombardment.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his voice to increasingly dire warnings about the conflict’s impact. 

“For people around the world, the war is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake,” he said. 

– Little progress on grain –

At talks in Ankara, Russia and Turkey made little headway in striking a deal to secure safe passage for grain exports stuck in Ukraine due to a Russian sea blockade.

At the request of the United Nations, Turkey has offered its services to escort maritime convoys from Ukrainian ports, despite the presence of mines — some of which have been detected near the Turkish coast.

“We are ready to do this in cooperation with our Turkish colleagues,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Ankara.

Kyiv said it would not demine waters around the Black Sea port of Odessa to allow grain exports, citing the threat of Russian attacks on the city.

Lavrov’s Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu called Russian demands for an end to sanctions to help grain onto the world market “legitimate”.

“If we need to open up the international market to Ukrainian grain, we see the removal of obstacles standing in the way of Russia’s exports as a legitimate demand,” he said.

But Kyiv, which was not represented at the Ankara talks, pushed back against claims that Western sanctions on Moscow had sent prices soaring.

“We have been actively communicating, the president and myself, about the true cause of this crisis: it is Russian aggression, not sanctions,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. 

Before the war, Ukraine was a major exporter of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. Russia’s blockade has been blamed for contributing to soaring prices, stoking fears of a looming food crisis in poor countries.

As he hosted Mediterranean ministers for talks on the global food crisis, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio warned “millions” could die unless Russia unblocked Ukraine’s ports.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected suggestions that grain stuck in Ukrainian ports was fuelling the problem.

“As far as we know, there is much less grain than the Ukrainians say. There is no need to exaggerate the importance of these grain reserves,” he told reporters.

– ‘Bombings every day’ –

Severodonetsk appeared close to being captured just days ago but Ukrainian forces launched counterattacks and managed to hold out, despite warnings they were outnumbered by superior forces.

About 800 civilians trapped by the fighting have taken refuge in the city’s Azot chemical factory in the city, according to the lawyer of a Ukrainian tycoon whose company owns the facility. 

Ukrainian authorities have yet to confirm the report.

The situation was also increasingly desperate in other parts of the Donbas. 

In the city of Bakhmut, an unoccupied school building was reduced to a smouldering wreck after being shelled Wednesday, with burnt books visible among the rubble, according to AFP journalists. No injuries or deaths were reported. 

In Severodonetsk’s twin city Lysychansk, residents who had chosen to stay were facing fierce Russian bombardments. 

“Every day there are bombings and every day something burns. A house, a flat… And there is nobody to help me,” 70-year-old Yuriy Krasnikov told AFP.

“I tried to go to the city authorities, but nobody’s there, everyone has run away.”

There was some rare good news for Ukraine, as their football side clinched a 1-0 Nations League victory over the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.

The victory — thanks to a free kick from Viktor Tsygankov — lifted the country’s spirits after their painful failure to qualify for the World Cup.

burs-sr/dva

A US citizen with monkeypox escaped from a hospital in a Mexican resort and fled the country, local health authorities said Wednesday.

The 48-year-old man, originally from Texas, fled the hospital in Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast last weekend despite having been told by medical staff that he should be tested for monkeypox and kept in isolation, the state health department said in a statement.

When he arrived at the hospital, the patient had symptoms of “cough, chills, muscle pain and pustule-like lesions on his face, neck and trunk,” the agency said.

After fleeing the medical facility, the Texan then went to the hotel where he was staying with his partner and caught a flight out of Puerto Vallarta on June 4, before authorities were able to locate him.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to Mexican authorities on Monday that the patient had returned to the United States where a test confirmed he had monkeypox.

Prior to arriving in Puerto Vallarta on May 27, the individual was in Berlin, Germany, between May 12 and 16, and subsequently in Dallas, Texas.

During his stay in Mexico, he attended parties at the Mantamar Beach Club in the resort town of Jalisco.

Health officials urged anyone who attended the club between May 27 and June 4 to monitor their health.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that it was aware of more than 1,000 cases of monkeypox in countries where the disease is not endemic. 

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged leaders of the Americas to prove that democracy works as he laid out plans to boost economic cooperation and improve health and food access in a region where China has been making growing inroads.

Welcoming leaders to Los Angeles to the Summit of the Americas, Biden acknowledged differences — with Mexico’s leader refusing to come — but made an impassioned plea for democracy as the best way forward.

“When democracy is under assault around the world, let us unite again and renew our conviction that democracy is not only the defining feature,” Biden said, “but the essential ingredient to the Americas’ future.”

“At this summit, we have an opportunity for us to come together around some bold ideas, ambitious actions, and to demonstrate to our people the incredible power of democracy,” Biden said.

In a theater that plays host to the Emmys, delegations snacking on popcorn watched a choreographed dance routine by Emilio Estefan and a rendition of The Beatles’ “Come Together” by Sheila E.

Biden laid out a new regionwide economic plan that was large on ideas but short on commitments, with no promises of further market access or funding.

In an echo of US political debates, Biden said that the United States was looking for economic growth “from the bottom up and the middle out and not the top down.”

“What was true in the United States is true in every country — ‘trickle-down economics’ does not work,” he said to applause.

In an implicit contrast to Beijing, Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said the United States was worried less about flashy announcements than about supporting more inclusive growth.

“The United States has never seen its comparative advantages in the world as just leveraging huge numbers of state dollars, but rather leveraging all of the tools available to us,” he told reporters on Air Force One.

Biden announced $300 million in assistance to address the region’s food insecurity, which has been on the rise as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupts grain exports.

The White House also announced a new Americas Health Corps that aims to improve the skills of 500,000 health workers across the region, building on the lessons from Covid-19, which hit the Western Hemisphere especially hard.

The health training will cost $100 million, although the United States will not contribute it all and will seek to raise funds, including through the Pan American Health Organization, an administration official said.

China has stepped up its role in Latin America during the pandemic, moving early to supply vaccines, and US nemesis Cuba has long exported its state-employed doctors. 

The announcement comes a day after Vice President Kamala Harris detailed $1.9 billion in private sector investment in impoverished and violence-ravaged El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The troubles in the so-called Northern Triangle, as well as Haiti, have generated a soaring number of migrants to the United States, setting off a domestic furor as Donald Trump’s Republican Party demands efforts to stop them.

– Meeting with ‘Tropical Trump’ –

Draining US diplomatic energy ahead of the summit, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to attend as he insisted that Biden invite the leftist leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, shunned on the grounds that they are autocrats.

Biden will have a potentially awkward first meeting Thursday with President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Latin America’s most populous nation. 

A Trump supporter, Bolsonaro has raised doubts about the legitimacy both of upcoming voting in Brazil and, on the eve of his trip, of Biden’s own election.

Sullivan said that Biden would not shy away from the topic and would discuss the importance of “open, free, fair, transparent democratic elections.”

– Trade deals lite –

Biden has stood firm on democracy at the summit even as he considers going next month to Saudi Arabia, a critical oil supplier. But Biden has moved away from another past goal — free trade.

The Summit of the Americas is the first in the United States since the inaugural edition in 1994 was held in Miami under Bill Clinton, who proposed a free-trade zone that would span the hemisphere — but exclude communist-ruled Cuba.

The White House billed Biden’s summit as an update to Clinton’s vision. But the US political mood has since dramatically soured on free trade, with Trump rising to power denouncing liberalization as harmful to US workers. 

The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity announced by Biden will look at coordinating on standards and supply chains but will not offer new market access — a key incentive offered to the region by China, with its billion-plus consumer market.

Biden last month similarly unveiled an Asian partnership on setting economic standards as he visited Tokyo.

But unlike in Asia, the United States already has free trade deals with a number of major Latin American nations including Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

Thousands of mostly Venezuelan migrants began receiving temporary Mexican visas Wednesday as they prepared to continue their trek toward the United States.

The migrants had set up a temporary camp on a basketball court in the southern Mexican town of Huixtla, some 40 kilometers from where they began their journey on Monday close to the Guatemala border.

Immigration authorities in Huixtla began slowly processing temporary visas for the migrants Wednesday, which will allow them to stay in Mexico for 30 days without fear of being deported, said Luis Garcia Villagran, a coordinator with the Human Dignity Center NGO that is accompanying the caravan.

A Mexican government official confirmed to AFP that humanitarian visas were being issued to the migrants, but Garcia said the process was slow.

“We’re going to the northern border! We’re going with permits, without permits, with buses, without buses, however they want,” said Garcia Villagran.

“We will leave on foot… tomorrow Thursday at 6 am (1100 GMT),” he added.

Huixtla has become a sort of bottleneck for undocumented migrants arriving from Central America, leaving the national immigration center there overwhelmed.

The caravan of people fleeing poverty, violence and political oppression in their homelands, set off on Monday in the same week that US President Joe Biden hosts the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, with migration one of the main agenda items.

On Tuesday, the US announced a new commitment to provide $1.9 billion of private funding to Central America with the aim of slowing the migration wave.

This most recent caravan is made up of around 11,000 people, including a group of 70 with handicaps, according to the human rights ombudsman’s office.

Venezuelan Julio Andrade, 43, who lost a leg in a traffic accident, told AFP he was migrating “for a better future, because the situation in my country is terrible. There is no employment, security or medicines.”

While waiting, the Venezuelans sang their national anthem and told jokes about President Nicolas Maduro.

They are hoping to receive special treatment from the United States, which does not recognize Maduro’s 2018 re-election as legitimate.

Another Venezuelan, 29-year-old Gleidys, said she could not understand why Mexican authorities were making it so difficult to receive a temporary visa.

“We don’t want to stay here … we’re passing through,” she said.

The UN says more than six million Venezuelans have left the country in recent years due to the economic and political crises there.

Migrant caravans that traversed Mexico in 2018 and 2019 sparked tensions with the administration of then-US president Donald Trump.

Since then, Mexico has stepped up its border controls and in 2021 more than 300,000 undocumented migrants were detained there.