Eduardo González
U.S. President Joe Biden will try to take advantage of the attendance of Minister José Manuel Albares to the Summit of the Americas to reach an agreement with Spain for the resettlement of Central American refugees from the United States.
According to the US news portal Axios, which cites “internal planning documents”, Biden’s objective is to be able to announce during the Summit of the Americas – to be held in Los Angeles (California) during the week of June 6-10 – the signing of an agreement by which Spain commits to resettle Central American refugees, a measure which would favor the US President politically because of the very high number of asylum seekers his Administration is facing at the southern border.
According to the aforementioned sources, the initial number of refugees resettled by Spain would be “modest” but “symbolically important” and would be part of the Spanish Government’s interest in doubling or even tripling the number of temporary workers for the construction sector from Central America. It has not been specified whether some nationalities would be favored more than others when it comes to their resettlement in Spain.
According to Axios, this agreement is the result of the meeting held on May 25 in Madrid of the Spain-US Working Group on Central America, which was attended by the Secretary of State for Latin America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, and the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Emily Mendrala, along with representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Homeland Security, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
On the other hand, the possible signing of the agreement would coincide with the attendance of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, to the Summit of the Americas. Ministry sources confirmed to The Diplomat the Minister’s presence in Los Angeles as a guest (the Summit brings together the leaders of the member states of the Organization of American States, OAS, in which Spain has permanent observer status), but did not advance any information on the possible agreement with the US. The Spanish Embassy in Washington, the U.S. State Department and the White House have also not confirmed to Axios this possible compromise on Central American refugees.
The ninth Summit of the Americas will bring together, under the theme Building a Sustainable, Resilient and Equitable Future, the 32 heads of state and government of the OAS: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay.
The biggest controversy of this Summit will be the absence of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, ceased to belong to the OAS in 2019, the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, did the same in 2021 -after this organism did not recognize his electoral victory for a fourth consecutive term- and Cuba, simply, has never belonged to this organization. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has warned that he will not attend the meeting if these three countries are not invited, but the White House has insisted that it has no intention of inviting three non-democratic regimes.
