Not in Cuba, yes in Arabia? Biden’s ambivalences on democracy

In an interview with reporters on Monday, focusing on a regional summit with Latin America currently being held in Los Angeles, a senior White House official found himself on the defensive.

What logic is there in excluding Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua Summit of the Americas because of reservations about democracy and human rights, while the 79 -year -old Democrat talks about a trip to Saudi Arabia?

It’s a bit like comparing cabbage and carrotssaid the White House official. It does not suggest in any way an approach that will vary depending on the region..

However, all of this remains embarrassing for Joe Biden, who sees himself as a champion of democracies against autocracies, and who is not stingy with moral anger.

He released a report showing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s responsibility for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and vowed to make the oil kingdom a pariah of the international scene.

But now, according to the American press, he plans to meet with MBS.

if [Joe Biden] decided that it was in the interest of the United States to contact a foreign leader and that this interaction could produce results, thensaid her spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday.

Everyone is angry with Biden

Pure cynicism, according to Robert Guttman, who teaches political science at Johns Hopkins University. The mid-term legislative elections [en novembre] is approaching and everyone is angry with Biden, and he needs to show that he is doing something.

if everyone is angry with Biden, this is primarily due to pump prices not stopping to climb. It offends Americans and jeopardizes the Democrats ’chances of retaining control of Congress.

So Joe Biden thinks he has everything to gain from lowering the price of black gold, if Riyadh agrees to do more.

On the contrary, he cannot hope for any political benefit from a dialogue in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. On the contrary: the Republican opposition will fire red balls at any adjustment, specifically the communist regime in Havana.

The president then the bet that Americans will be blinded by lower gas prices and not notice that he is closing in on autocrats and dictatorswas recently angry Andrea Prasow, director general of the NGO Freedom Initiative.

Bruce Jentleson, a professor at Duke University, believes the planned trip to Saudi Arabia is also a strategic mistake.

What worries me is that we seem to be going to sleep ahead of Riyadh.

I don’t believe that increasing Saudi oil production will have a huge impact on fuel prices. It is therefore counter-productive, both in terms of democracy and in terms of balance of power.deciphering him.

Ambivalence

In Los Angeles, Joe Biden also scheduled his first bilateral meeting with Brazil’s right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.

A meticulous interview: Washington is really concerned publicly about the maneuvers of Brazil’s head of state, who is seeking a second term, to challenge his country’s electoral system.

This is not the first time the Biden administration has been caught in the act of ambivalence, between democratic ambitions and diplomatic interests, for example the desire to confront China’s ambitions.

When he recently organized the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the American president, for example, shunned Burma, but invited regimes that were not exactly considered models of democracy, for example Laos and Cambodia.