Around the morning papers, analysis of the Summit of Americas dominates news from the region today. The New York Times writes that the leaders from the hemisphere proclaimed a “new dawn for relations in the region,” inspired by a new American president. According to the NYT, this “newfound togetherness was a turning point for the region (…) at a time when the ability to work together could prove critical to weathering the global economic crisis.” The paper quotes various regional leaders who said the most surprising part of the weekend Summit in Trinidad and Tobago was the lack of confrontation. In one such example of hospitable relations between adversaries, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez said Saturday that he was naming Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s representative to the Organization of American States, to be his new ambassador to Washington. The State Department called this a “positive development,” says the paper.
The Washington Post’s lead story on the Summit focuses on President Obama’s closing remarks about how he plans a broader engagement with Latin America during his presidency, based on “an equal partnership” where there is “no senior partner or junior partner.” The paper writes that “he expressed support for a more central U.S. place in global alliances, including a firm endorsement of the United Nations, and said, ‘We do our best to promote our ideals and our values by our example.’” Interestingly, the WaPo, among others, adds that Obama “ventured so far as to say that he felt the United States could learn a lesson from Cuba, which for decades has sent doctors to other countries throughout Latin America to care for the poor.” “It's a reminder for us in the United States that if our only interaction with many of these countries is drug interdiction, if our only interaction is military, then we may not be developing the connections that can, over time, increase our influence,” Mr. Obama remarked. Asked Sunday, what he learned at the Summit, Obama answered Sunday that “even the most vociferous critics of the United States also want to make sure that the United States' economy is working and growing again, because there is extraordinary dependence on the United States for exports, for remittances.” The paper also examines how Obama used his own race as a way of connecting with the region’s indigenous, black and mixed-race underclass, which “has long identified the United States with economic policies that benefit the elite of European descent far more than them.
In the Miami Herald the focus is on Cuba and Venezuela. The paper writes this morning that President Obama’s closing statement to Raúl Castro was that it was now the Cuban leader’s turn to free political prisoners and lower remittance fees. According to Obama, speaking on Sunday, “the fact that you had Raúl Castro say he's willing to have his government discuss with ours not just issues of lifting the embargo, but issues of human rights, political prisoners, that's a sign of progress” but added “there are some things that the Cuban government could do.” Earlier, the American president said that “completely ignoring Cuba is not going to change policy” arguing that only engagement might help propel democratic changes on the island. On Friday, President Obama approached Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and the two men shook hands—an act famously captured on camera. Mr. Chávez apparently remarked: “With this same hand I greeted Bush eight years ago. I want to be your friend.” In a meeting of UNASUR member states on Saturday, Chávez also gifted Mr. Obama a copy of Uruguayan novelist Eduardo Galeano's 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America.
The Wall Street Journal argues in its report on the Summit that Mr. Obama used the three-day summit to “express a tone of openness from the U.S.” According to the paper, Obama said Sunday that he thinks other nations would be more interested in cooperating with the U.S. if the country were seen as a ‘force for good.’ The paper adds that Cuba policy took center-stage at the Summit, beginning at Friday’s opening ceremony. With respect to Cuba, Mr. Obama himself touched on the issue Friday, saying “I know there is a longer journey that must be traveled in overcoming decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take.” Obama also discussed a pending free-trade agreement with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and sent his trade representative, Ron Kirk, to discuss U.S. concerns over Colombia's treatment of labor leaders. WSJ columnist Mary O’Grady, meanwhile, is very critical of U.S. president’s actions at the Summit, writing “if President Barack Obama's goal at the fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago this weekend was to be better liked by the region's dictators and left-wing populists than his predecessor George W. Bush, the White House can chalk up a win.” She calls Obama’s foreign policy toward the region one which “will offend no one and accomplish nothing.”
And, finally, the LA Times focuses on Obama’s reaction to criticism of his engagement with President Chávez in its report. According to the paper, President Obama said Sunday that “the United States, with its overwhelming military superiority and need to improve its global image, could afford to extend such diplomatic ‘courtesy.’” Some Congressional Republicans were very critical of such overtures by Obama, with Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) saying it was “irresponsible” for Obama to be seen “laughing and joking” with the Venezuelan president. But Mr. Obama responded, in part, to such attacks arguing that the 2008 election was, according to the LAT, a referendum on the argument that U.S. reaching out toward foreign leaders could be seen as “weakness.”
In other news, more on Cuba in the NYT where the paper examines the split opinion within the Cuban American community over last Monday’s changes on family travel and remittances. The report notes that “given all the other issues on the president’s plate, Latin America is not likely to remain in the spotlight for long. But for at least this last week, it has been near impossible to miss the administration’s outreach to the region.”
On Mexico and drug violence, an AP story in the NYT reports that gunmen ambushed a prisoner transfer convoy in western Mexico, killing eight police officers in an attempt to free a high-level cartel member Sunday. An LAT story features Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, the Mexican general in charge of fighting drug cartels in Tijuana. The paper says that “a series of operations by the Mexican military appears to have weakened organized-crime groups and restored a sense of relative calm to this border city,” and Gen. Duarte is being held-up as a model in the Mexican government for the way in which he has fought drug traffickers. Also in the LAT, following President Obama’s Mexico visit late last week, the paper says “there were few concrete steps taken during the 20-hour visit by President Obama to Mexico” although goodwill was shown. An editorial in the paper calls on President Obama to do more to stem the flow of assault weapons to Mexico—a political challenge that Obama says he is not willing to tackle at this point.
More on guns in the WaPo. Columnist E.J. Dionne attacks the gun lobby’s power in the U.S. Congress writing that “given Congress's default to the apologists for loose gun laws, it will take a president to make something happen.” In another weekend article, the WaPo says U.S. efforts to stop the flow of weapons to Mexico are colliding with the culture of the U.S. West. The paper writes that “the abiding appreciation for firearms that informs the Second Amendment runs especially deep in Arizona and Texas, which span 80 percent of the 2,000-mile border,”
even as 100,000 firearms are smuggled south per year and 90 percent of those seized in Mexico have been traced back to the U.S.
On Senate elections in Haiti, the MH and LAT both report that very few voters turned out Sunday as candidates from former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas Family party were disqualified from the election by the council. The party had urged an estimated 4 million registered voters not to participate.
An AP report in the MH says Caribbean leaders have asked the U.S. to expand the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative to their island nations.
And two opinions by Andres Oppenheimer in the MH: one on Obama’s popularity in Latin America and a second on the back-and-forth with Cuba.
Photo: Associated Press
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