US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that Washington had no intention of ceding leadership in Latin America to ‘authoritarian states’
Washington hopes to use the gathering of Latin American leaders in Lima to counter China’s rising influence in the region, but without US President Donald Trump there.
Corruption is the official theme of this year’s Summit of the Americas in the Peruvian capital, where heads of state from across the Western Hemisphere will meet through Saturday.
Several countries attending also plan to condemn Venezuela’s planned presidential election next month.
Late on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross took aim at Beijing’s growing trade ties with the region, saying Latin America benefited more from value-added exports to the United States than rising sales of raw materials to China.
Ross told a regional gathering of business leaders in Lima that Washington had no intention of ceding leadership in Latin America to “authoritarian states”.
But leaders from Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and other countries will meet in Peru without Trump, after the White House said he decided to skip his first visit as president to Latin America to focus instead on the crisis in Syria.
In the opening speech at a joint business summit in Lima, Bolivia’s left-leaning President Evo Morales said the days when foreign powers could dictate terms to Latin America were over.
“Many developing countries and transnational companies think the only thing that matters is making money,” Morales said, calling instead for action on climate change. “The structural crisis of capitalism is threatening the survival of humanity itself.
