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06/09/2022 07:37 PM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles Convention Center
QUESTION: Gracias. Thank you so much for talking to us.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you, Jorge. It’s good to be with you.
QUESTION: So the fact that nine countries are not here, is that challenging or questioning U.S. leadership in the hemisphere?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, first, actually, those countries are here. For example, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua – I met with representatives from all three countries from civil society, also human rights activists and defenders. I would argue that they’re as – and probably more representative of their respective peoples than the governments or regimes in place. So they’re fully here, they’re a vibrant presence at the summit, and that’s important.
Other countries are here represented at different levels, but we have more than 60 delegations. We have 22, I think, heads of government, heads of state. And what we’re already seeing is an incredibly vibrant conversation where people are focused not on who is here or who is not here, at what level, but they’re focused on what we’re actually doing at the summit to answer some of the problems that people across our hemispheres are facing, and where we need to work together to solve them.
QUESTION: So let me insist on this: So the fact that obviously the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, they’re not here, but also neither are the presidents of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bolivia. Are we seeing the creation of an anti-democratic bloc in the hemisphere? Is that a concern to you?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: First, Jorge, when it comes to Mexico, we’ve had and I’ve had extensive conversations with my friend and counterpart Marcelo Ebrard. The President is very much looking forward to receiving President López Obrador at the White House in July. We have a very deep and ongoing collaboration on virtually all the issues that concern both our countries. We have a difference of opinion on this particular question of attendance at the summit. Typically, the hosts make those decisions. We decided that it was important to focus on the underlying democratic principles that bring our hemisphere together. Back in 2001 at the Summit of the Americas, that gave rise to the Democratic Charter, and we want to make sure that countries continue to look to those principles.
But we’re seeing – we have – there’s an incredibly vibrant hemisphere. We have democracies of the left, of the right, center, but here is the common denominator: All of these governments are motivated by a need to demonstrate that they can deliver effectively for their people. And I think there is a growing consciousness that most of the problems that we face and challenges we face and opportunities we face on COVID, on climate, on managing technology, which is defining so many of our lives, on dealing with migration, we have to tackle them together if we want to get results. And that’s the spirit that I’m finding animates these conversations.
QUESTION: Let me ask about Mexico. Senator Menendez – I don’t know if you saw his tweet. He recently said that López Obrador basically tried to blackmail President Biden into insisting countries that are not democratic be invited to the summit. Did President López Obrador blackmail President Biden? Did he try?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: We had a very legitimate difference of opinion on this. We’ve had many conversations about it in very good faith. And as I said, President Biden is looking forward to seeing President López Obrador at the White House in July.
QUESTION: In a tweet, you said you were concerned about the killing of Mexican journalists. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, he says that he’s concerned that drug cartels are controlling parts of Mexican territory. Is the López Obrador government a security concern for the U.S.?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: When it comes to journalists, let me say two things. First, broadly, we have deep concerns about threats being posed to journalists throughout our hemisphere. In the first half of this year alone, 17 journalists have been killed just for doing their jobs. There may be more, but we can document 17. So this has been an important part of the meetings that we’ve already had and will continue to have: What measures can we put in place to protect and support media, independent journalists doing their job in our hemisphere? And there’s a lot to be said about that, but concrete steps are being taken.
In Mexico itself, President López Obrador has vowed to take even stronger preventive action to make sure that journalists are protected up front, to try to get at some of the root causes that are sparking some of the violence being directed at journalists. Mostly it’s because they’re trying to expose criminal gangs, corruption, drug trafficking. So we’ll work closely with Mexico and any other country in the hemisphere on this because we are determined to protect journalists. This is – this free, independent media are at the heart of our democracies. If we lose that, we lose our democracies.