By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Thursday accused Cuba of fueling controversy over its possible exclusion from the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas next month to portray Washington as the “bad guy” and distract attention from Havana’s human rights record at home.

Kerri Hannan (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs), spoke at the Latin America conference. She said that countries who have threatened to cancel the meeting due to Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua not being invited, should go, or they will lose the opportunity to interact with the United States.

The possibility of a boycott by growing numbers of leaders including the Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador has increased the embarrassment risk for President Joe Biden who hosts the event in Los Angeles.

According to the White House, invitations have not been sent yet and details are being withheld. However, a senior State Department official said in April that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government would likely be excluded because they have not shown respect for democracy.

Adding to weeks of Cuban criticism, President Miguel Diaz-Canel told lawmakers on Monday a “country incapable of accommodating everyone should be disqualified as serving as host.”

On Thursday, the Cuban Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately reply to my request.

“The Cubans are loving this, getting the attention that they get for not attending and … continuing to bang that drum,” Hannan said.

“The more that they can shine the light on us and call us the bad guy, they’re avoiding the fact that the repression that they’ve been actively perpetrating against their people,” she said, citing a crackdown on street protests last July. “They want the press on us not inviting them to the summit or not. … Hypocrisy plays well in the media.”

This week, the Biden administration announced that it would partially lift Trump’s restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba. Cuba´s vice foreign minister on Wednesday denounced U.S. policy toward the island as one of continued “hostility” and “economic blockade.”

Lopez Obrador declared last week that he will not attend the summit, if Cubans are not invited. Luis Arce (his Bolivian counterpart) followed his lead.

Sources told Reuters that Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, is likely to miss the meeting as well. They did not specify why. Alejandro Giammattei, Guatemala’s President, said Tuesday that he will not be attending the meeting. This comes just days after the United States condemned the reappointment and corruption-linked attorney general.