Chavez wants Obama's friendship
2009-04-19 09:33
Port Of Spain - Latin American leaders
are hailing as a success an Americas summit closing on Sunday
that consecrated President Barack Obama as a positive partner
in the hemisphere who won over even die-hard anti-US
critics.
A formal closing ceremony on Sunday was due to set the seal
on the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago that
served to introduce Obama to a region where America-bashing has
long been accepted as a nationalist reflex.
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 US president, who
promised a co-operative partnership of equals with his peers.
"We made a lot of progress. With the expectations for
tensions that had originally existed, I think the fact that the
summit was cordial must be qualified as a success," Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez told reporters.
Brainstorming
Obama had to field a chorus of calls to lift the US trade
embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, but that did not stop him from
brainstorming with the other 33 heads of state on the global
economic crisis and regional energy and security challenges.
The United States' first black president appeared to have
been a hit with his counterparts from the racially mixed
region, even with those who often pilloried his predecessor,
George W Bush, as the diabolic epitome of "imperialism."
The most prolific Bush-basher, Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, was a model of effusive civility with Obama, telling
him, "I want to be your friend" in English and presenting him
with a left-wing book on Latin America as a gift.
Chavez felt sufficiently reassured by Obama to propose
naming a new ambassador to Washington to restore normal ties.
He had expelled the US envoy to Caracas in September and
Washington had responded by kicking out Venezuela's ambassador
in a dispute over US activities in Bolivia.
Washington said the move to restore ambassadors was
"positive."
Chavez headed a group of left-wing presidents, including
Evo Morales of Bolivia, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Rafael
Correa of Ecuador, who denounced Cuba's absence from the summit
and rejected the final draft declaration as deficient.
They said it failed to address Cuba's exclusion and also
did not provide concrete solutions to the global economic
crisis that threatens to send millions in the region back to
poverty.
Positive climate
The more than 60-paragraph declaration, which diplomats
worked on for months, commits the hemisphere's leaders to
"Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity,
Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability."
Given the objections to the document from some presidents,
there were doubts whether a formal signing would be held.
Regional leaders said that did not detract from the
generally positive spirit and progress of the meeting.
"I think the summit has been a great success by itself,
through the quality of the dialogue that occurred between the
presidents," Organisation of American States Secretary General
Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters.
"The presence of President Obama has certainly made a
powerful contribution to the positive climate and success of
the summit," Insulza said, adding the leaders had held
substantive talks on the economic crisis and other issues.
Insulza did not believe the summit had been 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
signalled 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 US embargo earlier in the week.
