Obama, LatAm leaders brace for Cuba duel
Saturday, 11 April 2009
PORT OF SPAIN, April 17 (AFP): US President Barack Obama and Latin American leaders were Friday heading for a duel over Cuba at a trans-continental summit from which the communist island has been barred.
Obama and Cuba's chief allies, notably Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, staked out opposing positions on the eve of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, putting Cuba at the centre of a row likely to dominate the gathering.
The US leader, stopping over in Mexico acknowledged that relations between Washington and Havana-frozen since Fidel Castro's revolution half a century ago-"is not going to thaw overnight."
But Obama said his decision this week to lift restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling and sending money to Cuba was a sign that "we want to recast our relationship"-even though the wider 47-year-old US economic embargo on remained in place.
It now is up to Cuba to "send signals that they're interested in liberalising," said Obama, who is looking to the summit as a chance to improve US relations with Latin America.
Chavez-gathering with Cuban President Raul Castro and other leftwing counterparts from Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay in a rival, smaller regional summit in Venezuela on Thursday-signalled he would keep the Cuba issue at the forefront of the Americas summit.
The Venezuelan leader said he would veto the largely symbolic declaration prepared for the end of the Trinidad summit Sunday because it fails to denounce Cuba's exclusion.
"Venezuela puts its veto from now on this declaration. We say, with other countries, that we do not agree with this declaration," Chavez said.
Raul Castro, brother and successor to Fidel Castro, reiterated that his administration was ready to talk to the United States about "human rights, press freedom, political prisoners, everything it wants to discuss," but only if it was treated as an equal.
But he deflected a comment by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealing to Havana to release dissidents, asking: "Why don't they release our five heroes who have in no way hurt the United States?"-a reference to five Cubans convicted for spying.
Obama and Cuba's chief allies, notably Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, staked out opposing positions on the eve of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, putting Cuba at the centre of a row likely to dominate the gathering.
The US leader, stopping over in Mexico acknowledged that relations between Washington and Havana-frozen since Fidel Castro's revolution half a century ago-"is not going to thaw overnight."
But Obama said his decision this week to lift restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling and sending money to Cuba was a sign that "we want to recast our relationship"-even though the wider 47-year-old US economic embargo on remained in place.
It now is up to Cuba to "send signals that they're interested in liberalising," said Obama, who is looking to the summit as a chance to improve US relations with Latin America.
Chavez-gathering with Cuban President Raul Castro and other leftwing counterparts from Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay in a rival, smaller regional summit in Venezuela on Thursday-signalled he would keep the Cuba issue at the forefront of the Americas summit.
The Venezuelan leader said he would veto the largely symbolic declaration prepared for the end of the Trinidad summit Sunday because it fails to denounce Cuba's exclusion.
"Venezuela puts its veto from now on this declaration. We say, with other countries, that we do not agree with this declaration," Chavez said.
Raul Castro, brother and successor to Fidel Castro, reiterated that his administration was ready to talk to the United States about "human rights, press freedom, political prisoners, everything it wants to discuss," but only if it was treated as an equal.
But he deflected a comment by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealing to Havana to release dissidents, asking: "Why don't they release our five heroes who have in no way hurt the United States?"-a reference to five Cubans convicted for spying.