CNN
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If you can’t get an invitation to the biggest party in town, act like you’re too busy to care.
As US President Joe Biden welcomes more than 20 Western Hemisphere leaders to Los Angeles, one of those excluded from the California gathering is holding his high-level talks on the other side of the world: Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a hurry Has left for Ankara. Met his Turkish counterpart.
America’s Summit, a triennial gathering of regional leaders from Alaska to Patagonia that the US is hosting for the first time since 1994, is Biden’s administration’s strongest effort to advance the American agenda in the Western Hemisphere. but The organization of the summit has been far from perfect.
The leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were excluded from the meeting due to their autocratic governments and poor human rights records – prompting leaders of several other countries to boycott the summit in solidarity. In the most notable defection, Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador sent lower-ranking officials in his place.
Cuba, which had been invited to previous summits in 2018 and 2015 and was expected to be invited this year as well, called its boycott “undemocratic”.
Maduro also criticized the decision but went a step further by calling on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – a visit that was held at the last minute. Under Venezuelan law, the head of state must obtain an authorization from Congress to travel abroad on official visits. The Maduro-controlled National Assembly confirmed the authorization on Tuesday evening – an hour after the presidential plane landed in Ankara.
The main point of the visit was clear from the start: Maduro is sending a message that people around the world will always be ready to welcome him, regardless of America’s exclusion. “Today I will have a busy agenda of meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, brother of Turkey. […] Venezuela’s voice is heard around the world: Maduro tweeted Wednesday morning.
Although Turkey is a member of NATO and an ally of the US, it has also been a friend of the Venezuelan strongman. Turkey has been a buyer of Venezuela’s gold – Some of these have been accused of human rights abuses – at least since 2018, and Maduro and Erdogan have met each other several times over the years.
Maduro’s visit also gives Erdogan the message that his country is free and that he wants to make foreign policy decisions.
Conveniently, Russia also appears to be in the mix – the same day Maduro landed in Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Ankara, The Venezuelan president has been a staunch supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, even as Washington considered allowing Russia to return its oil to the global market in place.
While there has been no official statement about whether the two sides met in Ankara, you can bet that the coincidence was not lost on Washington.