WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden plunged into this week’s Summit of the Americas aiming to push for regional progress in addressing economic development, climate change and migration despite the absence of some notable counterparts from Latin America.

With Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador topping a list of leaders threatening to stay home to protest the exclusion by the host United States of authoritarian leaders from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, experts say the event could turn into an embarrassment for U.S. President Joe Biden.

Several Latin American leaders have signaled they will not attend this year’s 9th Summit of the Americas if Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are not invited. “Nobody should exclude anyone,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said during a recent visit to Cuba.

More than 50 of the world’s top economists have slammed Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) for recent remarks he made about Cuba and Venezuela, asking that he “stop spreading the false narrative” that there is no connection between the crises in those countries and the U.S. sanctions against them.

In the second and last episode of “Head Down,” a two-part special from Futuro Investigates and Latino USA, in collaboration with Prism, we shift the focus to look at the systems put in place by the U.S. government and why they’re constantly failing workers in the H-2A visa program, even when they speak up.

In May 2018, Diego and Mario, two farmworkers who had entered the U.S. with H-2A visas, escaped their employer. Read why in the first of a two-part series by Futuro Investigates titled ‘Head Down.’

the U.S. Department of State is allocating more than $140 million in additional humanitarian aid and $31 million in development assistance to “respond to the needs of vulnerable Venezuelans in Venezuela, Venezuelan refugees and migrants, and their generous host communities across the region,” according to a press release by Secretary Antony Blinken.

If the Mexican and U.S. governments don’t shift their migration and border policies, horrific scenes like we saw in San Antonio in June, where the bodies of 53 migrants were discovered in an abandoned semi trailer, will become far more common.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to spend $1.5 billion over the next two years to improve “smart” border technology during meetings on Tuesday with President Joe Biden—a move the White House says shows neighborly cooperation.

The U.S.-Mexico relationship —a straightforward tradeoff during the Trump administration, with Mexico tamping down on migration and the U.S. not pressing on other issues— has become a wide range of disagreements over trade, foreign policy, energy, and climate change.

Central America, in Brief: After the no-show of the Northern Triangle presidents at the Summit of the Americas, their foreign ministers gave strident speeches defying Joe Biden and named their countries’ terms for U.S. and regional engagement.

HUIXTLA, Mexico (AP) — Mexico’s migration agency has issued nearly 7,000 temporary documents and transit visas over the last few days to members of a migrant caravan which by Saturday had broken up in southern Mexico.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are set to announce on Friday what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees.

VILLA COMALTITLÁN, Mexico (AP) — A group of migrants that once numbered as many as 5,000 were split on Thursday about whether to keep walking through southern Mexico toward the U.S. border.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Migration has taken center stage at an assembly of Western Hemisphere leaders, reflecting its emergence as a top foreign policy issue amid red-carpet drama over who comes and who stays home.

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Several thousand migrants set out walking in the rain early Monday in southern Mexico, tired of waiting to normalize their status in a region with little work and still far from their ultimate goal of reaching the United States.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed Monday that he will skip the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, dealing a blow to the U.S.’ efforts to rally governments to work together to address surging migration in the hemisphere.

Four days before the Summit of the Americas begins on June 6 in Los Angeles, the U.S. is short on friends in the Northern Triangle. Even Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, once President Joe Biden’s ally of last resort, said he will not attend.

Colombia’s constitutional court legalized medically-assisted suicide in a ruling Wednesday, making it the first country in Latin America to do so. Euthanasia has been legal in Colombia since 1997.

The government on Monday repealed a law that authorized self-governing economic zones known as “ZEDEs.” This decision forced foreign investors in Honduras to pause plans to develop in these zones. President Xiomara Castro said that Monday’s repeal was “historic” and the country was “recovering its sovereignty.”

By JOSH BOAK and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden planned to discuss efforts to address the unprecedented flow of migration along the U.S. southern border in a Friday afternoon call with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “I look forward to discussing our vision for the Ninth Summit of the […]