Is It Bad for America to Have So Many Ambassadorships Empty in the Americas?

This summer President Biden will host the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. That gathering of the western hemisphere’s leaders is held every three years — and Biden hopes this one will promote democracy at a time when authoritarian governance is on the rise again in Latin America and the Caribbean.

But many people who care about Latin America policy question the U.S.’s commitment — at least in the sense that several U.S. ambassador posts in the region are empty. In fact, more than a third of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean do not now have a U.S. ambassador, including the largest, Brazil…

“The signal this passes on, whether it’s intentional or not, is one of disinterest and disengagement,” said Eric Farnsworth, who heads the Washington D.C. office of the New York-based hemispheric think tank Americas Society/Council of the Americas.

It’s not unusual to have brief ambassador vacancies, and a new U.S. ambassador was just confirmed for Argentina. But these days there seem to be more long absences — as in Chile, which has not seen a U.S. ambassador for more than three years. Farnsworth said that can weaken the U.S.’s stature as a go-to ally for Latin American governments.

“And at a time," he said, "when the United States is no longer the only game in town in the western hemisphere — if you include China and some other options — that becomes problematic from a national security perspective."…

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