Mexico’s president plans regional meeting of Latin American leaders

Mexico’s president said Monday he will host a meeting of leaders from Latin America this month, including most of the recently elected leftists.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the presidents of Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia are coming to Mexico City.

López Obrador said he is awaiting confirmation on whether Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will attend the Nov. 23-25 meeting.

All of the leaders except Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso are considered left-leaning. López Obrador has expressed hopes in the past of reforming the Organization of American States, and this month’s meeting may be part of that plan.

López Obrador views the organization as too subordinate to U.S. interests and has touted other regional bodies, such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, as a possible alternative.

“We would also like to reform the OAS,” he said, “so that it isn’t subordinated to any country, any government, so that it isn’t in thrall to any hegemony.”

López Obrador skipped the U.S.-organized Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June because the leaders of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba weren’t invited.