LIMA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Leaders from across the Western Hemisphere will gather here on Friday and Saturday to attend the eighth Summit of the Americas focusing on corruption.

Themed as "Democratic Governance against Corruption", the summit comes against the backdrop of the largest corruption scandal in Latin America which involved Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht and led to former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's fall from grace and subsequent arrest this month.

High attention will be paid to the gathering as U.S. President Donald Trump's government has taken a series of hardline policies against the region. Trump himself will not attend it.

He canceled his scheduled trip Tuesday, apparently to "oversee the American response to Syria" after allegations that the Syrian government resorted to chemical attacks in a town near Damascus this month.

It will be the first time a U.S. president has skipped the meeting.

The event is held every three or four years under the aegis of the Organization of American States (OAS) since 1994 for high-level talks on regional issues and to collectively address the major challenges facing the bloc.