Despite the fact that the United States Government has excluded Cuba and Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas, the truth is that Joe Biden is opening paths of negotiation with both dictatorships, with decisions and consequences that arise for Spain. The Summit of the Americas was launched in 1994 by the United States as the reverse of the Ibero-American summits convened by Spain and to support the democratic governments of the region. For this reason, the absence of Caracas and Havana, representatives of two dictatorial governments, is not unrelated to the principles of this organization. However, in the bilateral plan, Biden is clearly putting a spin on relations with the Nicolás Maduro regime, moved, without a doubt, but by the needs of the moment than by the conviction that the Bolivarian leader is the one who will democratize the country. And the moment is marked by the criminal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its negative impact on the supply of gas and oil to industrialized countries. A good sign that something is beginning to change is the authorization that Washington has given to European companies, such as Eni and Repsol, to distribute Venezuelan oil in Europe on a limited basis. The extension of the Chinese influence over Ibero-America also encourages the United States to change its sanctions policy, changes that also reach Cuba. Parallel to its diplomatic movements in the region, Spain, kindly invited to the Los Angeles Summit, still cannot find a place in US diplomacy. While Biden practices the carrot with Maduro, he applies the stick to our country in tariff policy, because not only does he not lift those that Donald Trump imposed on olive oil or olives, but he added new ones to wind power and, recently, to canned mushrooms. At first sight and in quantitative terms, this new tariff might seem insignificant, but aside from its negative impact on the industrial sector on which it falls, it entails one more manifestation of Washington's mistrust of our country. It is also one of the exclusions of the Spanish Government from the rounds of communications that Washington makes about the war in Ukraine, or about Sánchez's difficulties in being received in conditions, not racing in a corridor, by the president of the United States. Pedro Sánchez's advisers do not yet know whether or not they will have a bilateral meeting with Biden at the next NATO summit, which will be held in Spain, reason enough to clear up that unknown that affects the host country. Despite the -supposed- ideological affinities between Sánchez and Biden, relations between the United States and Spain have still not recovered the level of trust that should exist between economic, political and military partners. From Rodríguez Zapatero's insult to the United States flag and his whims of being 'not aligned' with that ineffable Alliance of Civilizations, the socialist governments keep Spain in an unacceptable second division of world diplomacy and at an almost marginal level in the Washington interests. Thus, it is very difficult for the interests of the Spanish multinationals to see correct support on the international board, when strategic movements are being executed there that Spain observed as a passive spectator. This situation always responds to defined causes, even more so when they remain permanently unchanged despite the change of administration in Washington.
