LATIN AMERICAN UNITY AT SUMMIT SHOWS FURTHER PROOF OF THE START OF A NEW MULTI-POLAR WORLD

Obama Extends Hands to Chavez, Ortega at Summit Handshakes all around from Obama to Venezuela's Chavez, Nicaragua's Ortega at Americas Latsummit

By MARK S. SMITH
Associated Press Writer
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad

President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to
America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday,
listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even
reaching out to Venezuela's leftist leader.

…

In front of photographers, Chavez gave Obama a copy of "The
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage
of a Continent," a book by Eduardo Galeano that chronicles
U.S. and European economic and political interference in
the region.

When a reporter asked Obama what he thought of the book,
the president replied: "I thought it was one of Chavez's
books. I was going to give him one of mine." White House
advisers said they didn't know if Obama would read it or
not.

Later, during a group photo, Obama reached behind several
leaders at the summit to shake Chavez' hand for the third
time. Obama summoned a translator and the two smiled and
spoke briefly.

Those two exchanges followed a brief grip-and-grin for
cameras on Friday night when Obama greeted Chavez in
Spanish.

"I think it was a good moment," Chavez said about their
initial encounter. "I think President Obama is an
intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president."

At a luncheon speech to fellow leaders, Chavez said the
spirit of respect is encouraging and he proposed that
Havana host the next summit.

"I'm not going to speak for Cuba. It's not up to me...
(but) all of us here are friends of Cuba, and we hope the
United States will be, too," Chavez said.

…

Bolivia President Evo Morales, a close ally of Chavez, said
Obama's pledge of a new era of mutual respect toward Latin
America rings hollow.

"Obama said three things: There are neither senior or
junior partners. He said relations should be of mutual
respect, and he spoke of change," Morales said. "In Bolivia
... one doesn't feel any change. The policy of conspiracy
continues."

Morales expelled U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg in
September and kicked out the Drug Enforcement
Administration the next month for allegedly conspiring with
the political opposition to incite violence. Chavez
expelled the U.S. ambassador in Venezuela in solidarity.
The Bush administration subsequently suspended trade
preferences to Bolivia that Bolivian business leaders say
could cost 20,000 jobs.

Obama also extended a hand to Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega,
whom President Ronald Reagan spent years trying to drive
from power. Ortega was ousted in 1990 elections that ended
Nicaragua's civil war, but was returned to power by voters
in 2006.

Ortega stepped up and introduced himself to Obama, U.S.
officials said. But a short time later, Ortega delivered a
blistering 50-minute speech that denounced capitalism and
U.S. imperialism as the root of much hemispheric mischief.
The address even recalled the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba, though Ortega said the new U.S. president could not
be held to account for that.

"I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for
things that happened when I was three months old," Obama
said, to laughter and applause from the other leaders.