Obama ventures new era for US-Latin American ties with Cuba

Apr 18, 2009, 13:49 GMT

US President Barack Obama smiles after Venzuelan President Hugo Chavez gave him a copy of the book \'Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina\' by Eduardo Galeano, during a meeting with the UNASUR Countries at the Summit of the Americas at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago on 18 April 2009. The book\'s titled in English means \'The Open Veins Of Latin America\'. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

Port of Spain - At US President Barack Obama's much- anticipated first meeting with leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean, the leader vowed to turn the page in relations with his neighbours in the hemisphere.

'There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there is simply engagement based upon mutual respect, common interests, and shared values,' he said at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

Before the summit started, he had an animated exchange and solidarity handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, stepping out of the alphabetical line-up of leaders to grasp hands and chat, according to a senior US administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The overture helped smoothe over eight years of US-Venezuelan animosity under Obama's predecessor George W Bush.

As Obama addressed the leaders of 33 other hemispheric nations - all of them but Cuba - he reaped several rounds of applause.

He did not shy away from the thorny topic of Cuba, pledging a new beginning in that relationship as other leaders called for an end to the nearly half-century-long US embargo on the Caribbean island. But he elegantly acknowledged other complaints from the region regarding past US policy.

'While the United States has done much on behalf of peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged or sought to dictate our terms,' Obama conceded.

Although Bush had also pledged to tighten ties to Latin America, there is widespread resentment that the region had to play second fiddle to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks.

Earlier, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had used a conciliatory tone to demand a 'new regional order' and speak of 'what was for very many decades a traumatic relationship' with the United States.

'We sincerely believe that we in the Americas stand before a second chance to build a new relationship. Let us not let it slip away,' she said. 'We stand before a historic moment.'

Obama appeared to rise to the challenge, calling it a 'critical moment' for the people of the Americas who have been 'set back by an historic economic crisis.'

'I didn't come here to debate the past - I came here to deal with the future,' he said. 'By working together, we can take important steps forward to advance prosperity, security, and liberty.'

While Obama accepted that his country had some responsibility for the crisis, he vowed to work for regulation of the financial system to prevent a recurrence.

In line with the discourse that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - the single most prominent leader of the Americas beyond Obama - has pounded on for months, Obama put forward his goal: '(to) achieve an economic expansion in the United States and across the Americas that is built not on bubbles, but on sustainable growth.'

'Our unprecedented actions to stimulate growth and restart the flow of credit will help create jobs and prosperity within our borders and within yours,' Obama said.

Obama also:

- Pledged support for the Inter-American Development Bank to lend funds within the hemisphere, and noted his request to the US Congress for 448 million dollars for the hardest hit.

- Revealed a new Microfinance Growth Fund to help restart lending for small businesses.

- Pledged a new 30-million-dollar initiative 'to strengthen cooperation on security in the Caribbean' as part of the fight against drug trafficking. 'Illegal guns must not flow freely into criminal hands, and illegal drugs must not destroy lives and distort our economy,' Obama said.

He said the US also needed to reduce the demand for drugs within the United States which fuels the 'flow of guns and bulk cash south.'

Echoing his similar message in Europe earlier this month, Obama noted that while the US has changed, 'it's not just the United States that has to change. All of us have responsibilities towards the future.'