[R-G] Obama Gets History Lesson From Latin American Leaders

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aun_fNO0161g&refer=us

Obama Gets History Lesson From Latin American Leaders (Update1)

By Helen Murphy and Joshua Goodman

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Latin American leaders railed against the U.S.  
during President Barack Obama’s first trip to the region, turning what  
was intended to mark a new direction in relations into a history  
lesson that chastised “Yankee troop” interventions and U.S.-dictated  
economic policies.

Obama arrived at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and  
Tobago yesterday promising to “listen and learn” from regional  
leaders. He got an earful.

In the weekend’s first speeches, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega  
and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner voiced  
grievances on issues ranging from the U.S. drug war to American  
support for counterinsurgency movements of the 1980s. Both urged Obama  
to end the 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, the only country in  
the Americas excluded from the 34-nation summit.

“For many years, there have been traumatic relations,” Fernandez said.  
“I want you to know, Obama, that this is in no way a reproach against  
you. It’s simply an exercise to look back at what happened.”

Obama is trying to revive U.S. influence in Latin America that waned  
under President George W. Bush as the war on terror diverted attention  
to the Middle East and the region expanded economic and diplomatic  
ties with U.S. rivals such as Russia and China.

Chavez’s Gift

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who last month called Obama an  
“ignoramus” when it comes to Latin America, today gave Obama a Spanish- 
language copy of Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano’s book “Open  
Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.”

Chavez greeted Obama yesterday with a hand shake, signaling the good  
will Obama’s election has generated even among America’s fiercest  
critics in Latin America.

Ortega, who said he was upset that he was forced to wait for three  
hours on the tarmac after landing, spoke for 45 minutes. His speech  
included a reference to invasion by “Yankee troops.”

Nicaragua’s president said he was “ashamed” Cuba wasn’t invited to  
participate in the summit and called Obama’s lifting last week of  
travel and remittance restrictions for Cuban- Americans “insufficient  
and inacceptable.”

‘Big Test’

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Obama during a  
meeting today with leaders from the Union of South American Nations  
that another Summit of the Americas without Cuba was unacceptable.

“The big test is progress in relations with Cuba,” said Brazil’s  
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. “A small step was taken in the right  
direction. But there needs to be direct dialogue, discreet in the  
beginning. That’s what Lula told Obama needs to take place.”

Cuba is symbolically important to the region’s leaders, many of whom  
entered politics under military regimes and looked to the communist  
country and its longtime leader Fidel Castro, 82, for inspiration and  
support.

Kirchner and Ortega “were there to push the envelope,” said  
Congressman Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat who attended last  
night’s opening ceremony. “I don’t think that was a surprise to anyone  
in this room, though it took Ortega some time to do it. But Obama rose  
above it.”

Obama, speaking after Ortega and Fernandez, said the U.S. is seeking a  
new beginning in its relationship with Cuba and wants an “equal  
partnership” with other countries in the Americas.

Regional leaders “cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past  
disagreements,” Obama said.

“You can’t blame the U.S. for every problem in this hemisphere,” Obama  
said. “I am very grateful that President Ortega didn’t blame me for  
things that happened when I was three months old.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Helen Murphy in Port-of-Spain  
at Hmurphy1 at bloomberg.net; Joshua Goodman in Port-of-Spain at jgoodman19 at bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 18, 2009 12:16 EDT