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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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19Apr09
Obama pursues charm campaign at Americas summits
President Barack Obama on Sunday pursued his diplomatic charm campaign in the Americas in the closing hours of a regional summit that has helped restore the United States' battered image in the hemisphere.
Obama met on Sunday with leaders from Central America, a corner of the continent that has experienced U.S. military interventions and where at least one country voted to return a former left-wing guerrilla to the presidency.
The U.S. leader's contacts during the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago have mended broken diplomatic fences in a region where America-bashing has long been accepted.
"I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to meet with the leaders of Central America. Obviously we have a long history of relations between the United States and Central America," Obama told reporters at Sunday's meeting.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former leftist guerrilla leader and fierce critic of U.S. policies, Obama sat next to Ortega.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya praised Obama's "listen and learn" approach at the summit. "The treatment that we're receiving is totally different in terms of more openness, more dialogue and more respect," he told reporters.
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said the Central American leaders held "cordial and frank" talks for about an hour with Obama on migration issues, deportations and drug trafficking.
Although Obama has had to field a chorus of calls to lift the U.S. trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, his cooperative diplomatic style appears to have gone down well with his Latin American and Caribbean peers.
He even appeared to have won over die-hard critics of U.S. policy, like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who often pilloried Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, as the diabolic epitome of "imperialism."
Chavez, a prolific Bush-basher, felt sufficiently reassured by Obama to propose naming a new ambassador to Washington. He expelled the U.S. ambassador in September and Washington responded by kicking out Venezuela's envoy.
A formal closing ceremony later on Sunday was due to set the seal on the two-day summit that introduced Obama to the region. The U.S. president and more than 30 other regional leaders brainstormed on the global economic crisis and energy and security challenges.
Objections to Summit Document
It was not clear whether there would be a formal signing ceremony of the lengthy draft summit declaration, because a group of mostly leftist presidents led by Chavez had previously rejected it as deficient.
The group, including Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras, said the document failed to address Cuba's exclusion from the summit and did not provide solutions to the global economic crisis that threatens to send millions in the region back to poverty.
"We don't know if everybody is going to sign, but we hope so ... We need consensus and we hope there will be no damper," Dennis McComie, a spokesman for the Trinidadian summit hosts told Reuters. He said Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning was trying to persuade the recalcitrant group to sign.
Despite this, Latin American and Caribbean leaders were hailing the summit as a success.
In contrast to the previous 2005 summit in Argentina that ended in discord, the Port of Spain meeting was humming with good feelings projected by the young new U.S. president, who promised a cooperative partnership of equals with his peers.
"The presence of President Obama has certainly made a powerful contribution to the positive climate and success of the summit," Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters.
Insulza did not believe the summit was distracted by a debate over U.S.-Cuban ties that dominated its buildup.
Hopes for a rapprochement between Washington and Havana have risen after both Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro signaled they were ready to talk to try to end the long-standing ideological conflict between their countries.
Obama told the opening session of the summit on Friday he wanted a "new beginning" with Cuba and had made a gesture by easing some aspects of the U.S. embargo earlier in the week.
The U.S. leader also made clear he wanted Cuba to reciprocate by opening up political freedoms for its citizens.
In the past, Havana has rejected placing such conditions on an improvement in ties as meddling in its sovereignty.
[Source: By Pascal Fletcher and Jeff Mason, Port of Spain, 19Apr09]
 | This document has been published on 31Dec13 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |