First 100 days: Latin America focus
Posted: Friday, April 17, 2009 9:24 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
The First 100 Days
“After backing Mexico's ongoing battle against drug cartels, President Barack Obama is heading to a Western Hemisphere summit with a sudden spotlight on Cuba,” the AP says. “Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a staunch ally of Cuba's communist government, vowed to torpedo a final summit communique in protest of the country's exclusion. But Obama's move this week to ease travel and some other restrictions for Cuban-Americans brought an unprecedented reply from Havana. Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother, Fidel, a year ago, offered to talk to the Obama administration about all outstanding grievances. Speaking from a meeting Chavez hosted in Venezuela, Raul Castro declared: ‘We have sent word to the U.S. government in private and in public that we are willing to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything.’”
Don’t expect Obama to meet with Chavez, the White House said, per Politico. “Chavez will, however, be in a meeting Obama will hold with the leaders of all the countries of South America and Gibbs said that Obama wouldn't necessarily dodge a conversation if the Venezuelan president approached him.”
Covering the president’s activities in Mexico yesterday, the Washington Post says, “President Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón, outlined a common approach Thursday to combating drug violence, climate change and trade disputes but appeared to part ways over the urgency of reinstating a U.S. ban on assault weapons. On his first presidential visit to Mexico, Obama praised Calderón for taking on the drug cartels, whose potent arsenals and economic power are threatening the integrity of the Mexican state. Obama announced that he will push the U.S. Senate to ratify an inter-American arms-trafficking treaty.”
“But Obama indicated that while he favors reinstating the U.S. ban on assault weapons, which Congress allowed to expire five years ago, the move would face too much political opposition to happen soon. He said better enforcing existing laws to prevent arms smuggling would have a more immediate effect on keeping U.S. weapons from Mexican cartels.”
