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United States President Barack Obama - Source: Reuters -
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US President Barack Obama has pledged to seek a "new beginning"
in ties with communist-ruled Cuba as part of a new era of US
partnership and engagement with Latin America and the
Caribbean.
Before addressing his counterparts in the hemisphere at the Fifth
Summit of the Americas in Trinidad on Friday, Obama also initiated
a handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of
Washington's most virulent critics in the region.
"We cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements," Obama
told the opening session of the summit after entering the
conference center to warm applause.
Obama promised US cooperation to help the region fight the effects
of the global economic crisis and confront the challenges of
climate change and insecurity posed by drug-trafficking and
kidnapping.
But he made a point of referring to Cuba, whose government has been
at ideological odds with Washington for half a century following
Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
"The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba. I know there is
a longer journey that must be traveled in overcoming decades of
mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new
day," Obama said in his address.
"Over the past two years, I have indicated, and I repeat today,
that I am prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban
government on a wide range of issues from human rights, free speech
and democratic reform to drugs, migration and economic issues," he
added.
His speech before 33 other leaders from the hemisphere came a day
after Cuban President Raul Castro had said his government was ready
to talk about "everything" with the United States, including
political prisoners and press freedom.
Earlier this week, Obama relaxed parts of the 47-year-old US trade
embargo against Cuba, and the conciliatory signals from both sides
have raised hopes across the hemisphere of a historic rapprochement
between Washington and Havana.
Cuba is excluded from the Trinidad meeting of 34 leaders, and in
the past has angrily rejected any attempt to link an improvement in
ties with Washington with internal reform.
Regional heads of state, from Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, have called on Obama to end the
long-standing US embargo against Cuba.
'An intelligent man'
Obama's handshake with Chavez also heralded a possible improvement
in ties with one of the most important oil suppliers to the United
States. Under conservative President George W. Bush, Chavez emerged
as a voluble leader of pro-Cuba left-wing presidents and critics of
Washington's policies.
"I want to be your friend," a beaming Chavez told the US president,
and photographs of the encounter were quickly distributed by the
Venezuelan presidency.
"We shook hands like gentlemen; it was obvious it was going to
happen," Chavez told reporters later. "President Obama is an
intelligent man, different from the previous one."
A senior US official said Obama went over to Chavez to introduce
himself and they shook hands.
Asked later by reporters what he had said to Chavez, Obama replied:
"I said, 'Como estas?'" - Spanish for "How are you?"
Before he spoke at the opening session, Obama heard other speakers
at the session, including Argentine President Cristina Fernandez
and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, call forcefully for an end
to the US embargo on Cuba.
In his rambling speech to the opening session, former guerrilla
leader Ortega said he was "ashamed" to be attending a summit at
which Cuba was not present.
In response, Obama, who earlier also shook hands with Ortega,
departed from his prepared remarks to say: "I think it is important
to recognize, given the historic suspicions, that the United States
policy should not be interference in other countries."
"But that also means that we can't blame the United States for
every problem that arises in the hemisphere ... That is the old
way, we need a new way," he added.
In his address, Obama also promised to work with countries in the
hemisphere to help the region confront the recession, stimulate
economic growth and create jobs.
He also announced a new initiative to invest $US30 million to
strengthen cooperation on security in the Caribbean.
Before Obama landed in Port of Spain, White House spokesman Robert
Gibbs called on Cuba to free political prisoners.
Hours before the start of the Americas summit, Venezuela's Chavez
and a group of like-minded leftist leaders, including Cuba's Raul
Castro and Ortega, rejected the proposed draft declaration of the
meeting.
They said the meeting offered no solutions to the economic crisis
and "unjustifiably excluded Cuba."
