President Joe Biden will kick off a conference that was supposed to highlight US leadership in revitalizing Latin American economies and addressing migratory pressures, but has instead been derailed by disagreements over the guest list.

Biden’s plans to deliver a package to assist Latin America recover, curb increasing immigration, and challenge China’s expanding regional economic dominance have been hampered by a partial boycott by leaders enraged by the United States’ decision to exclude Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the summit.

U.S. officials hope that the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles and a parallel gathering of top business executives can pave the way for increased economic cooperation in the region as countries grappling with higher inflation work to bring supply chains stretched by the COVID-19 pandemic closer to home.

“It’s much better for us … to have a supply chain here in the Americas than it is for us to be dependent on a supply chain that comes from China,” U.S. ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar told Reuters on the sidelines of the summit.

Seeking to present alternatives to China, U.S. officials said Biden would unveil an “Americas Partnership” on Wednesday to speed pandemic recovery by building on existing trade deals.

The plan would aim to mobilize investments, reinvigorate the Inter-American Development Bank, create clean energy jobs, strengthen supply chains and promote “sustainable and inclusive trade,” in the region, one administration official said.

Still, an initiative that promotes jobs abroad could face U.S. protectionist pushback, as well as questions about how many widely divergent economies could make it work.

The Biden administration has framed the summit as an opportunity for the United States to reaffirm its commitment to Latin America after years of comparative neglect under his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

But tensions have repeatedly dogged the preparations.

Diplomatic cracks yawned wide this week when Washington opted not to invite Communist-run Cuba and the leftist governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua, arguing their record on human rights and democracy made it impossible.

Rebuffed in his demand that all countries must be invited, Mexico’s president said he would stay away, deflecting attention away from Biden’s goals and toward regional divisions.

The leaders of Guatemala and Honduras, two of the countries that send most migrants to the United States, also said they would not go, undermining efforts by Biden officials to craft a “declaration” on joint plans to address the phenomenon.

Still, leaders from more than 20 countries in the region will attend, including from Canada, Brazil and Argentina, according to organizers.

Biden, in what is being billed as a policy speech to open the summit, will preview the migration declaration to be announced on Friday. Officials say it will include specific commitments from leaders to help address the challenge.

Detentions of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have hit record levels this year, and on Monday another caravan of people numbering thousands set off north from southern Mexico.