Obama in Latin America: Spirit of Cooperation

A handshake for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and a call for a “new beginning” with Cuba, the Obama administration’s foreign policy is already showing signs of doing away with the hardline approach of the Bush administration.

President Obama is at the Summit of the Americas being held in Port-of-Spain Trinidad.  The main message: a spirit of cooperation. President Obama even went as far as heeding to calls to begin talks with Cuban President Raul Castro, but stopped short of signaling he would lift the 47-year-old embargo on the communist country.

Many leaders are looking to Obama to get them out of the economic slump they’re experiencing. While he tried to deflect the instinct to blame the neighbor to the North, Obama did promise some relief through certain measures, including a new hemispheric growth fund, a plan to increase Caribbean security, and a new regional partnership to develop alternative energy sources and fight global warming.

The pictures that most showed the spirit of the summit were of President Obama shaking hands with a smiling Hugo Chavez.  In the past, Chavez has delivered harsh words for Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, who he compared to the devil.  During their exchange, Chavez gave Obama a copy of the book “The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,” a book by Eduardo Galeano that chronicles U.S. and European influence in the Americas.

According to ABC News, when asked by a reporter what President Obama thought of Chavez’s gift, the President said he thought the gift was a book by Chavez and would have liked to have given Chavez his book. The White House did not say if the President would read the book.

Chavez even had some nice words for Obama and about their first meeting: “I think it was a good moment,” Chavez said to reporters. “I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president,” he said.

The White House says Chavez’s criticism of the United States was not as strong as in year’s past, but were cautious of signaling any major change in relations quickly.

“Relationships depend on more than smiles and handshakes,” Obama economic adviser Larry Summers told reporters later. There was no talk of reinstating Ambassadors that were pulled out of each other’s country last year.

Another controversial and critic of the United States, Bolivian President Evo Morales, called Obama’s pledge for mutual respect between Latin American countries “hollow” and said he was weary of the equal playing field approach Obama called for.

“Obama said three things: There are neither Senior nor Junior partners. He said relations should be of mutual respect, and he spoke of change,” said Morales to reporters. “In Bolivia, one doesn’t feel any change.  The policy of conspiracy continues,” he said.

In an opening speech to the 34-nation meeting on Friday, Obama had these words: “We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms,” said Obama. “But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership.  There is no senior partner and no junior partner in our relationship.”