{"id":1546,"date":"2018-04-13T13:34:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T13:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=1546"},"modified":"2018-04-13T13:34:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T13:34:55","slug":"summit-of-the-americas-begins-amid-regional-tumult-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/04\/13\/summit-of-the-americas-begins-amid-regional-tumult-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit of the Americas Begins Amid Regional Tumult &#8211; Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"row article-top-header\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"col-md-8 article-top-header-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"article-heading\">\n<p>https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/summit-americas-begins-regional-tumult-180410122908232.html<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-heading-des\">The summit unites the leaders of the Americas as corruption scandals continue and Trump sends US troops to the border.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-heading-author-wrap\">\n<div class=\"article-heading-author-img\">\n<div class=\"article-heading-author-name\">\n<div class=\"article-duration\">an hour ago<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-top-share-icon\" class=\"article-readToMe-share-block\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"row article-main-content-wrapper\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"col-md-8 article-main-content\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<article id=\"main-article-block\" class=\"main-article-block clear-fix\">\n<div class=\"main-article-body\">\n<figure class=\"main-article-mediaCaption\">\n<div class=\"main-article-media\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive main-article-media-img\" title=\"Summit of the Americas begins amid regional tumult \" src=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/mritems\/imagecache\/mbdxxlarge\/mritems\/Images\/2018\/4\/10\/cda7083fead749db9b47728796c88d25_18.jpg\" alt=\"The summit begins less than a month after Peru's president assumed office following the previous leader's resignation [Martin Mejia\/AP Photo]\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"main-article-caption\">The summit begins less than a month after Peru&#8217;s president assumed office following the previous leader&#8217;s resignation [Martin Mejia\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"article-more-on-block article-shaded-blocks article-embedded-card hidden-xs\">\n<h4 class=\"embeded-box-name\">MORE ON <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/regions\/us-canada.html\">US &amp; CANADA<\/a><\/h4>\n<ul class=\"article-more-on-ul\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/sends-mixed-signal-military-action-syria-180413060029183.html\">US sends mixed signals over military action in Syria<\/a>today<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/higher-loyalty-book-lashing-trump-james-comey-180413104657145.html\">A Higher Loyalty: A new book lashing out Trump by James Comey<\/a>today<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/mike-pompeo-secretary-state-confirmation-hearing-180412123633057.html\">Pompeo appears at secretary of state confirmation hearing<\/a>today<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/qatar-seeks-double-economic-partnership-worth-125bn-180412091431524.html\">Qatar seeks to &#8216;double&#8217; economic partnership with US worth $125bn<\/a>yesterday<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" class=\"article-p-wrapper\">\n<p class=\"speakable\">The eighth Summit of the Americas, a conference that draws together the leaders of North, Central and South America, begans in Lima, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/peru.html\">Peru<\/a>, on Friday amidst continued political instability throughout the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Business leaders are set to convene the first meeting of the summit on Monday morning. The topics to be discussed include Latin America&#8217;s economic outlook and recommendations from civil society actors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">As of April 5, at least 20 heads of state had committed to attending the summit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are ready, prepared, and everything is very well organised to welcome the important Heads of State and their delegations,&#8221; Peru&#8217;s Foreign Affairs Minister Nestor Popolizio said in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>The summit&#8217;s theme is &#8220;Democratic Governance against Corruption&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>Regional tumult<\/h2>\n<p>The summit comes during a time of region-wide political instability and change. Peru&#8217;s President Martin Vizcarra <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/03\/peruvian-congress-accepts-president-kuczynski-resignation-180323161813280.html\">assumed office<\/a> on March 23, after former president and billionaire businessman Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned due to numerous scandals throughout his short presidency.<\/p>\n<p>The Odebrecht bribery scandal was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/03\/perus-president-questioned-alleged-corruption-180317120512360.html\">among the scandals<\/a> that marred Kuczynski&#8217;s tenure. Odebrecht is a Brazilian construction company behind the 2014 world cup in Brazil, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/events\/rio-2016.html\">2016 Olympic Games<\/a> in the same country, Caracas, Venezuela&#8217;s metro system and numerous other projects across the continent, as well as Portugal, Mozambique and Angola.<\/p>\n<p>Odebrecht has reportedly admitted to bribing politicians throughout the region with payments numbering in the hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Kuczynski was accused of lying about payments received from the firm in the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n<p>Petrobras, Brazil&#8217;s state-controlled petroleum firm, has its own multimillion-dollar graft scheme that allegedly involved officials taking bribes to award construction contracts to companies at inflated rates.<\/p>\n<p>Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, commonly called Lula\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/brazil.html\">turned himself into police<\/a>\u00a0on April 7 after a dramatic standoff with police. The Supreme Court denied a request from Lula to avoid beginning his 12-year jail sentence while he exhausted all of his appeals over a corruption conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Lula, a left-wing populist, still has a strong base of support in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/brazil.html\">Brazil<\/a>, which is currently headed by a right-wing government. He had hoped to run for president during October&#8217;s elections.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past two years, there have been further protests and political battles in Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/mexico.html\">Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Trouble north of the border<\/h2>\n<p>US President Donald Trump was expected to attend the summit, but cancelled on Tuesday,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/respond-syria-attack-russia-warns-repercussions-180409213624376.html\"> citing developments in Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mexico, along with Central American states El Salvador and Honduras, have enjoyed strained relations with the US since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/11\/profile-president-donald-trump-161109050153947.html\">Trump<\/a> assumed office in January 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/01\/migrant-agenda-dangerous-deportations-cut-180101172616407.html\">initiated<\/a> a crackdown on undocumented immigrants from Latin America, &#8211; especially Mexico and Central America countries &#8211; living in the US. Trump has also repeatedly called for<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/03\/living-shadow-trumps-border-wall-prototypes-180312104512297.html\"> a wall<\/a> along the US-Mexico border.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the Trump administration announced it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/rights-groups-decry-trump-plan-send-military-guard-border-180403234656758.html\">would send<\/a> 500 National Guard troops to the border, and several states have pledged to send more.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela will hold snap presidential elections in May. Several Latin American governments have said they won&#8217;t recognise the election after the main opposition coalition was barred from running in January.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was not invited to the summit but has said he will attend.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration is in the middle of renegotiations of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/02\/ruffo-nafta-survive-economy-wins-180225103818999.html\">North American Free Trade Agreement<\/a>, which opened trade between Canada, Mexico and the US.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration is currently in talks to change aspects of the agreement to better favour US businesses. Trump told US officials on April 5 he expects a deal to be reached &#8220;soon&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/04\/summit-americas-begins-regional-tumult-180410122908232.html The summit unites the leaders of the Americas as corruption scandals continue and Trump sends US troops to the border. an hour ago The summit begins less than a month after Peru&#8217;s president assumed office following the previous leader&#8217;s resignation [Martin Mejia\/AP Photo] MORE ON US &amp; CANADA US sends mixed signals over military action in Syriatoday A Higher&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/04\/13\/summit-of-the-americas-begins-amid-regional-tumult-al-jazeera\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}