Peru's Congress gives socialist President Castillo green light to attend Biden's Summit of the Americas

Peru’s leftist-run Congress on Thursday gave socialist President Pedro Castillo the green-light to attend the Biden administration’s upcoming Summit of the Americas, adding another name to an increasingly uncertain guest list.

Although Castillo received a formal invitation to attend the regional gathering from Washington in May, he previously expressed (like the leaders of Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia -- that he might not participate unless the United States allowed Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba to participate in the summit.

Last month, the State Department announced that the region’s dictatorships will likely be excluded from the Summit of the Americas – a regional summit set to be held in Los Angeles in June.

Speaking to a small group of reporters, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols said “they are unlikely to be there,” adding that the summit was open to the Western Hemisphere’s democracies.

Shortly after the announcement was made, however, leftist leaders from across the region – including Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil -- began urging Washington to allow all of the region’s delegations to participate, threatening to boycott the summit if their demands weren’t met.

In order to avoid an international embarrassment -- which could show the waning influence the U.S. now wields in the region -- the U.S. has in recent days begun flirting with the region’s leaders, sending a delegation to Mexico City to meet with leftist President López Obrador and moving towards lifting some sanctions against the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes.   

Such moves have left Republican lawmakers and analysts worried about how far the administration is willing to go in order to appease the opposition and hold a successful summit.

Speaking to the Senate subcommittee, Rubio warned that the “post-Cold War hubris about democracy is being directly challenged” in the region by democratically elected leaders who “don’t govern as democrats” and “use the power they acquire electorally to undermine the functioning of institutions.”

“That's been the case in a number of places,” he said. “Nicaragua is one, Venezuela is another. And so you have the real challenge today, not just of a long-term dictatorship that's been in Cuba for a very long time, but what basically are now dictatorships in Venezuela, in Nicaragua, and the fear that that could spread to other places.”

On Wednesday, Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez confirmed his presence at the meeting. Brazil's leader Jair Bolsonaro and Chile's Gabriel Boric are also expected to attend.