Even if the Joe Biden presidency didn’t give us the second coming of Franklin Roosevelt on the domestic front, you could always take solace in the idea that Biden, a seasoned foreign policy hand, would restore some kind of predictability, stability, and integrity to the US role in the world. Unfortunately, that hasn’t really happened either.

Just look at the US-hosted Summit of the Americas which started this week, the first time the United States has hosted the thirty-four-country meeting since its inaugural year in 1994. As the local hegemon, this should’ve been a slam dunk, giving Washington the chance to work with the hemisphere’s leaders to hammer out a solution to some of its key concerns — migration first among them — while also projecting its influence in the region, showcasing the administration’s reengagement with the world, and serving as a subtle “fuck off” to China, which has made inroads into what Biden called “America’s front yard” through investment and infrastructure projects.

Instead, the event has turned into something of a debacle for the administration, which in the words of the Associated Press had to scramble in the lead-up to prevent it from turning into an “embarrassment.” This is because the summit is being boycotted by the leaders of several of the region’s key players, most notably Bolivia and, as of Monday, Mexico, as well as Guatemala and Honduras. The sticking point is the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the summit, owing to the less-than-democratic credentials of their governments.