Obama turns the page on history in Latin America

Obama shakes hands with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera
© AFP Jim Watson

AFP

SANTIAGO (AFP) - President Barack Obama painted ideological disputes with Latin America as relics of the past as he urged regional leaders Monday to embrace a new era of equal partnership with the United States.

In Chile on his first tour to the region as president, Obama said the United States and Latin America were bound by common values and a shared history as he wooed trade to boost a faltering US economy.

"I believe that in the Americas today, there are no senior partners and there are no junior partners, there are equal partners," Obama said, speaking alongside Chilean President Sebastian Pinera in Santiago.

"In each other's journey we see reflections of our own. Colonists who broke free from empires.  Pioneers who opened new frontiers," he said. "This is our history. This is our heritage. We are all Americans. Todos somos Americanos."
In a thinly-veiled attack though on regional foes like Cuba and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Obama railed against "leaders who cling to bankrupt ideologies to justify their own power and who seek to silence their opponents."


But as in Brazil, the main thrust of his message was aimed at boosting US export markets to stimulate growth back home.

Obama's Latin America swing has to some extent been overshadowed by events in Libya, where US-led air and missile strikes are enforcing a no-fly zone authorized by a UN Security Council resolution.

The strikes aimed at ousting Moamer Kadhafi have divided Latin America, with Colombia, Peru and Panama and Chile voicing support and Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay and Nicaragua condemning the attacks.

"I know that I'm not the first US president to pledge a new spirit of partnership with our Latin American neighbors. I know that, at times, the United States has taken this region for granted," Obama said.

But "old conflicts have receded, so too have the ideological battles that often fueled them."

Obama's charm offensive could help open up Latin America's surging economies to US firms and shore up export markets as it ties up important free trade deals with key regional partners Panama and Colombia.

"We buy more of your goods and products than any other country, and we invest more in this region than any other country. For instance, we export more than three times as much to Latin America as we do to China," he noted.

"Our exports to this region, which are growing faster than our exports to the rest of the world, will soon support more than two million US jobs."

Chile and the United States on Friday signed a nuclear energy cooperation deal which, amid the crisis at a crippled atomic plant in Japan, was strongly denounced by environmental groups and the opposition.

Accompanied by wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha, Obama was received with honors by Pinera, the first rightwing leader of the South American nation since democracy was restored in 1990.

Pinera, a billionaire businessman, was to fete Obama at an official dinner on Monday night before the president departed the following day for El Salvador, the final stop his three-nation Latin America tour.

Obama could not fail to mention the Chilean miners whose epic survival and dramatic rescue last October, after more than two months trapped underground, captivated the world.

"As the miners were lifted to safety, for those joyous reunions, it was a truly global moment, watched and celebrated by more than a billion people," he said.

"If ever we needed a reminder -- of the humanity and hopes we share -- that moment in the desert was it."

Obama also reiterated his commitment to reform the broken US immigration system. His efforts to bring 11 million illegal immigrants, most of them Hispanics, out of the shadows have met Republican opposition in Congress.

On Sunday, in a keynote address in Rio de Janeiro, Obama pointed to Brazil as evidence that a dictatorship can become a thriving democracy, a message he also made applicable on Monday to Chile.

The host of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, Brazil has moved to clean up notoriously violent slums overlooking the city, and took Obama to a favela once so dangerous that only a few years ago no one would have been safe.

Washington sees the tour, which will wrap up with a visit to El Salvador on Tuesday, as a chance to reassert American influence in Latin America, a region largely neglected under Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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