INSIGHTi
2022 Summit of the Americas
Updated June 6, 2022
The United States is hosting the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles from June 6-10, 2022. The
Summits of the Americas, held roughly every three years, serve as opportunities for the Western
Hemisphere’s heads of government to engage directly with one another and address issues of collective
concern. In May 2021, the Senate passed S.Res. 120, calling on the President to “lead a strong and
coordinated diplomatic effort” during the summit process to strengthen democratic governance, support
post-pandemic economic recovery efforts, enhance security cooperation, and address displacement and
migration in the Western Hemisphere. Depending on what, if any, commitments or proposals the
President makes at the summit, he could call on Congress to approve policy changes and/or appropriate
resources.
Background
The Summits of the Americas were established in the early 1990s during a brief period of broad political
consensus in the Western Hemisphere. After decades of civil war and military rule, 34 of the 35 countries
in the region had established elected civilian democracies. Likewise, following the end of the Cold War,
most of the governments in the region had moved away from state-led development in favor of economic
liberalization. To build on those shared values and develop a common agenda for the hemisphere’s future,
President Bill Clinton invited the democratically elected heads of government in the hemisphere to attend
the first Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994. The summit attendees approved a comprehensive plan
of action with 23 separate initiatives, the most prominent of which was an agreement to work toward the
creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Although the FTAA was never realized, the
negotiating process intensified regional dialogue on trade, leading to numerous bilateral and regional free
trade agreements.
Since the first summit in Miami, there have been seven additional Summits of the Americas and two
Special Summits of the Americas. The meetings have resulted in several notable initiatives, including the
2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter—an agreement among Western Hemisphere countries that the
peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and that their governments have an obligation to
promote and defend that right. The hemisphere’s leaders have been unable to reach consensus on many
regional challenges at more recent summits, however, leading some analysts to argue the summits have
not been an effective platform for cooperation. Others contend the summits’ ability to convene heads of
government for formal and informal discussions remains valuable.
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Prospects for the Los Angeles Summit
As has occurred in previous years, the lead-up to the Los Angeles summit has been dominated by
controversy over which leaders will attend. The hemisphere’s leaders agreed in 2001 that only democratic
governments would participate in the summit process. The regional consensus has shifted since then,
leading to Cuba’s participation in the 2015 and 2018 summits. Whereas some Members of Congress
called on the Biden Administration to exclude the authoritarian governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, and
Venezuela, many Latin American and Caribbean leaders insisted that every country in the hemisphere
should participate in the summit. After an extended consultation process, the Administration ultimately
decided to exclude those authoritarian governments but invited Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan
citizens to participate in three official stakeholder forums for civil society, youth, and private sector
representatives to occur during the summit. Some leaders, including the president of Mexico, reportedly
plan to skip the summit in protest or remain home for other reasons, potentially hampering efforts to
establish regional consensus on key issues.
Official Agenda
The official theme of the 2022 summit is “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future.” In
February 2022, the U.S. government presented five draft political commitments to be considered at the
summit related to strengthening health systems, addressing climate change, accelerating the transition to
clean energy, establishing a regional program for digital transformation, and bolstering democratic
governance. Among the more concrete commitments included in the initial drafts were to
reach consensus on a regional action plan to address the effects of the Coronavirus
Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and strengthen health systems by the 10th Summit
of the Americas;
develop national plans to achieve net zero deforestation by 2030 and to incorporate those
goals into Paris Agreement commitments prior to the 2022 U.N. climate change
conference;
end public financing for new unabated coal power generation by the end of 2022;
facilitate affordable and universal broadband access by 2030;
provide standing invitations for Organization of American States electoral observation
missions; and
establish a regional mechanism to evaluate emerging threats to democracy prior to the
10th Summit of the Americas.
Representatives of the hemisphere’s governments have been meeting regularly in the lead-up to the
summit to refine each of the political commitments. According to U.S. Summit of the Americas National
Coordinator Kevin O’Reilly, coalitions of countries may need to forge ahead on certain issues if the
region as a whole is unable to achieve consensus.
Other U.S. Policy Initiatives
The Biden Administration has indicated that addressing irregular migration will be among its top
priorities at the summit. Although U.S. domestic attention has focused largely on the situation at the U.S.
Southwest Border, large-scale migration movements are occurring throughout the Western Hemisphere.
For example, more than 6.1 million people have left Venezuela since 2014 and more than 5 million
Venezuelan migrants and refugees are residing throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The
Administration is negotiating a Los Angeles Declaration for Migration and Protection that would
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recognize migration management as a shared responsibility and seek to bolster regional efforts to improve
border security, combat smuggling, create legal migration pathways, address the root causes of migration,
and support migrant host communities.
The Administration also may seek hemispheric support for other initiatives. For example, the
Administration intends to present a “new and ambitious economic agenda” that builds on existing free
trade agreements in the hemisphere. According to one press report, the proposal may aim to strengthen
economic integration, address supply-chain vulnerabilities, and encourage nearshoring—the relocation of
U.S. multinational firms from Asia to the Western Hemisphere.
Author Information
Peter J. Meyer
Specialist in Latin American and Canadian Affairs
Disclaimer
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