“He is not the President, and that sends the message that the US administration is Latin America not a priority, so that’s a problem,” said mark Schneider, senior Advisor for America at the center for strategic and international studies.
While the White house does not exclude that the “not happy”, the official said that the Vice President is the highest level of alternative and notes that the Vice President had once traveled in the region and deals with issues.
“The President has decided to send its No. 2 — Vice-President — precisely in order to show how important relationship in the Latin American region to the administration trump,” said a White house spokesman. “He could have sent a lower level delegation in his place, but tapped the Vice President to go to convince our allies in the commitment of the administration of the region.”
But when it comes to the business of diplomacy, said Schneider pence in a sense, is a preferred alternative to trump that “he is the best messenger.”
“I think he is more likely to be seen by the Latins as more accepting and acknowledging the efforts they put in handling the situation in Venezuela. In this regard, he is likely to get better reception,” said Schneider.
This view is shared by mark Feierstein, who worked for Western hemisphere Affairs in the national security Council under President Barack Obama, who notes that the Pens are less likely to offend Latin American leaders in his rhetoric.
“The penny is perhaps the best representative for the United States than trump,” said Feierstein, now a senior adviser to the Albright Stonebridge group. “He won’t leave a message and he’ll deliver his Theses with respect.”
But even so, pence is expected to skepticism from other regional leaders, who feel the administration trump is not a priority of hemispheric relations was offended by a part of the rhetoric that comes from the White house.
“One of the big problems for pence seems that the administration trump has yet to develop a coherent policy towards South America, but just disdain that trump, it seems, for the entire region,” said Feierstein. “This is clearly not helpful when you call Mexicans rapists, to talk about building a wall, and, as a consequence, the ratings of trump very low in the region.”
In addition to the business summit, pence and one-on-one meetings with the leaders of Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Canada. Yet the meeting with the President of Mexico on schedule, a White house official said that Vice-President is largely running to schedule, which was “in advance, when the President was going to go on a” journey, and did not rule out that such a meeting can be added.
One important topic of discussion, White house officials said, will be immigration and border security. And the President is known to use hot rhetoric on the issue and blamed Mexico for not doing more to stop the flow of migrants in the United States, the Vice President is expected to deliver a question of mutual interest during the meeting with the leaders.
“It’s something that we emphasize in those meetings, that our immigration security, which is a key priority for the administration, helped by our strong relationships in the security sphere with our partners in the region. They help us to maintain migration flows. We want to make sure that we take these partnerships security and to build them because they are in our interests”, – said the representative of the White house.
Schneider said that the President’s tough rhetoric about migrants, who came to the U.S. from Central America were damaged and the language he used in sending National guard troops on the U.S. border with Mexico has already met with “very cold and negative reception” in the region.
“When the United States criticizes Mexico for each account, the Latins knew it wasn’t true No. 1 in Latin America also know that Mexico has limited features and does a pretty decent job,” said Schneider. “[And] the idea of sending American troops to the border, while sending National guard troops to the border has been done before, so President trump key words perceived as a slap in the face to the Latins.”
With pence is not expected, the dust, the debate on the topical issue of immigration as a trump, possibly, another direction of his travel will be to convince Latin America that the United States is a major trading partner of China, which also claims the trade relations in the region.
“We believe that the United States is and should remain the best partner for our partners in Latin America, and we will cover topics like conducting fairs and reciprocity in our trade relations”, – said the representative of the White house.
But Feierstein said that it may be difficult to sell, given that trump the actions of the administration on trade and cooperation.
“They want to emphasize that we are a better economic partner than China, but it is a difficult message when you pull out of the TRANS-Pacific partnership], and to talk about withdrawal from NAFTA [North American free trade Agreement], to talk about building a wall, and cutting foreign aid is not a message about the engagement,” Feierstein said.
When it comes to the fact that in the United States the most acute problem of trafficking in the Western hemisphere — the trilateral relationship between the United States Canada and Mexico and revision of NAFTA — no announcements are expected.
“We do not expect substantive discussions on NAFTA at the summit,” a senior administration official told reporters last week.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull the US in General, if it cannot be reworked to his satisfaction. Negotiations between the three countries continues.
U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, who is negotiating in the US will no longer attend the summit. But the son-in-law of the President and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who also took part in the negotiations on NAFTA, will travel to Peru, together with the Vice President. The white house has not provided specific and detailed information on the agenda for Kouchner, while in Peru.
Also rampant for the meeting of the leaders of the political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. While Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was uninvited from the summit, Schneider believes that leaders should issue a single message.
“Slide towards dictatorship in Venezuela does not interfere, and the most pressing problem for this hemisphere, so I think that if there is not something out of the summit, which saw the hemisphere to take serious measures, the summit will be a success.”
But a senior administration official said that no new ad related to Venezuela are expected at the summit.
“We do not expect any new announcements at the summit of the Americas,” a senior official. “We expect over the next few months that we will see more U.S. steps to punish both Maduro and cronies that he keeps in his power through corruption.”
But even when no single measure is expected to be announced, said a spokesman for the White house that Maduro was invited to the summit sends a strong message.
“Venezuela was not invited to the Latin American master. This is unprecedented,” the official said. “He’s going to demonstrate that the region itself — not because the United States was forced or convinced, or admitted, but because people from those countries can see how it looks as an alternative.”
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
