 The United States will be hosting the ninth summit of the Americas from June 6-10 in Los Angeles, California. This summit is convened by the heavily US-influenced Organization of the American States. This year is the first time that the summit will be hosted within the US since 1994. However, many Latin American and Caribbean countries are calling for a boycott of the Summit of the Americas. Why this boycott? Brian Nichols, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, was asked in an interview recently if Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua will be invited to the summit. His answer was an unequivocal no. He added that countries whose, and I quote, actions do not respect democracy will not receive invitations, end quote. Nichols seemingly offhand and arrogant comment calling for the three countries and I quote regimes that do not respect democracy, end quote, sent a shockwave through the region that the US was likely not expecting. Throughout Latin America, the reaction was immediate. Leaders such as Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador, Bolivian President Luis Arce, Argentine President Alberto Fernández, and Honduran President Shomaro Castro, as well as several heads of state from the Caribbean community, stated they would not participate in the summit if Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were excluded. President Arce said, a summit of the Americas which excludes American countries will not be a full summit of the Americas. If the exclusion of our brothers continues, I will not participate in it. Cuba has not participated for many summits after the inaugural session. Why such strong opposition this time? Since its inception in 1994, the summit has been met with skepticism by progressives across Latin America due to the domineering role played by the US and the OAS within regard to invitations and agenda. However, this year the US seems to have underestimated the importance political shifts in the region and their impact on the political legitimacy of the US. The US does not seem to have anticipated any challenges to its leadership of the summit. But the pushback against US hegemony comes as no surprise to most Latin Americans and those around the world who have been following the region's politics of late. Since the last summit in 2018, the political map has undergone radical transformations. Not only are progressive governments outnumbering reactionary ones across the region but many of them emerge precisely out of a deep projection of US-backed governments and policies and the conditions that they create for the people. How are people's movements and progressive organizations responding? What is the People's Summit for Democracy? The theme of the summit of the Americas is building a sustainable, resilient and equitable future. The US administration under President Biden plans to highlight their shared commitment to economic prosperity, security, human rights and dignity. At the same time, the US is excluding Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the summit stating that these countries pose a threat to democracy. People's movements in the US have pointed out the hypocrisy in these statements. They are asking, Prosperity for who? Democracy for who? Los Angeles where the summit will be held has some of the starkest income inequality in the nation with billionaires living just within blocks from homeless encampments amidst the rising housing crisis. Many are also questioning what kind of democracy exists in a country where 1 million people have died from COVID-19, 2.2 million people are in prison, where police kill an average of 3 people a day and where 801 billion dollars is spent on the military. The majority of people in the Americas have rejected this hypocritical, moral high ground of the US or that the country has the right to decide who participates in what forum. This is why a coalition of more than 100 organizations from across the region have come together to organize the People's Summit for Democracy to counter the improperly named Summit of the Americas. The People's Summit carries forward the legacy of movements against neoliberal capitalism and US imperialism. The People's Summit will also be held in LA from June 8 to 10. It seeks to bring together the voices of people whom the US would prefer to silence and exclude. Immigrant organizers in Los Angeles will take the stage with the landless rural workers from Brazil to discuss their visions of democracy for all. Feminist organizations from Argentina to New York will share strategies of how to fight for abortion access and counter the reactionary right-wing attacks on women and LGBTQ people. From Union de Vecinos and the Los Angeles Tenants Union, the reason why we decided to be one of the convening organizations of the People's Summit was the fact that there's 140 million poor and dispossessed people in this country. We thought it was a hypocrisy to talk about democracy when over time we've been seeing that it only takes one person to stop a bill that is going to help and support communities, especially during the pandemic. The thing is that we are not immigrants one day and decide to be women the next day and tenants the next day and a worker the next day. All of those things impact us and it is the time and moment for all of us to come together to find solutions to all of the things that are impacting us whether it's systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation or the war economy. So that's why we're here today and this summit is going to allow us to build a movement where all of us here in Los Angeles can figure out how we can push something that is not just local but it's statewide, national and international. How has the US reacted to the Boycott and the People's Summit? Even mainstream corporate media outlets have been stating that this summit of the Americas is shaping up to be an embarrassment for the Biden administration. The US government is not taking this criticism well at all. It is also not too happy with the direct challenge the People's Summit poses to the country's authority in the region. Besides not inviting Cuba, the US government also denied the visas of a 23-person delegation of Cuban civil society to the People's Summit. Additionally, the Los Angeles Police Department, LAPD, has refused to grant a permit to the People's Summit organizers for a march on the Summit of Americas. The organizers stated their right to free speech and protest is being denied. They are still fighting for a permit and plan to march regardless of the outcome. My name is Nanna Jumpi and I'm the Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. We are joining the People's Summit because we know that it is the people that have the power. It is the people who decide what we will have. It is not those who believe they rule upon us. And so we're fighting for liberation. We're fighting for justice. We're fighting for that delicious life. Come join us.