"Compete" may be too strong a word, but there are at least four countries competing to show regional influence and leadership at this Summit other than the United States. If Brazil wants to show itself as a regional and even global leader, it can't just sit on the sidelines at this Summit and watch things happen. It needs to engage other countries and lead them to decisions and concrete actions. Mexico will be hosting the G20 meeting later this year, it has a key role to play on citizen security and Calderon has made climate change a top issue on his international agenda. Colombia's diplomacy has been praised so far in the Summit preparation, but it still needs to pull off a successful Summit and then transition that into future leadership roles. While Venezuela's regional influence is slowed, in part due to the health of its president, don't count out the leader of ALBA and his oil money yet. Venezuela leads a significant bloc of states that can still play spoiler or agenda setter under the right conditions.
Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
