– L’America Latina non rientra tra le priorità di politica estera degli USA, e non deve perciò attendersi molto da essi (secondo l’editore di Foreign Policy);
– Non basta un nuovo tono a preannunciare effetti duraturi, causa la crisi economica gli Usa non hanno molto da offrire (lo storico degli Usa Miguel Tinker Salas).
– Molto charme e piccoli gesti di concessioni da parte del presidente americano Obama nell’incontro con i 32 capi di Stato latino-americani (che hanno fatto a gara per farsi fotografare con Obama; il colombiano Uribe ha esibito di un suo autografo, il venezuelano Chávez (che aveva definito Bush “diavolo” etc…) gli ha amichevolmente stretto la mano; l’argentina Kirchner: Obama ci ha ascoltato con attenzione).
o Promesse: una nuova alleanza su basi di eguaglianza, $100 mn. per un fondo per piccoli crediti, un viaggio in America Latina.
o Con George W. Bush gli Usa hanno perso influenza in America Latina, dove si era costituito un fronte anti-americano guidato da Chàvez, mentre il Brasile si è imposto come potenza regionale, e la Cina si è piazzata come nuovo partner commerciale.
– Talmente preponderanti le richieste di colloqui bilaterali, che i consiglieri di Obama hanno chiuso quelli multilaterali.
– La questione di Cuba, che non era ufficialmente all’O.d.G., è stato il più importante risultato uscito dal vertice.
– Nessuna dichiarazione conclusiva emessa dal vertice, perché Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia e Honduras l’hanno respinta in quanto non corrispondente alle esigenze della regione. Ecuador: non si parla delle cause della crisi economica, mentre si chiamano in soccorso cadaveri neoliberali come il FMI.
o Nessuna dichiarazione conclusiva neppure nel precedente vertice di 4 anni fa’, causa la disputa sull’Accordo di libero scambio di tutte le Americhe (Alca), respinto da Brasile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay e Venezuela.
o Nel vertice attuale non si è parlato di libero scambio; solo la Colombia ha promesso a Obama che sosterrà la ratifica dell’accordo. Finora si erano opposti soprattutto i Democratici del Congresso Usa, causa l’opposizione sindacale in Colombia.
– Attrito anche sui combustibili biologici:
o I paesi produttori di gas, come Bolivia e Venezuela sono ne contrari, favorevole il Brasile – secondo maggior produttore mondiale di etanolo – “energia pulita del futuro”.
– Obama ha concesso che l’embargo USA verso Cuba (iniziato nel 1962) ha fallito il suo obiettivo di democratizzazione, devono essere percorse altre vie; già in corso un allentamento delle sanzioni … (cfr. scheda precedente inviata).
– Il presidente dell’OAS (Organizzazione degli Stati Americani) ha annunciato che nella prossima assemblea generale si ridiscuterà la ripresa di Cuba nell’organizzazione, da cui era stata espulsa nel 1962.
Obama chiude il vertice, si augura maggior impegno con l’America Latina
I leader dell’emisfero occidentale segnalano nuovo corso con gli Usa.
ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO e SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
● L’accoglienza a volte riservata in America Latina al primo presidente nero degli USA sottolinea la vitale importanza degli Usa nell’emisfero, data la sua dimensione economica.
● Obama: anche i maggiori oppositori degli USA vogliono essere certi che l’economia americana funzioni e riprenda a crescere, data la loro forte dipendenza per l’export e le rimesse.
– Obama: imparare da Cuba, che si è conquistata il benvolere nella regione inviando suoi medici; gli Usa non possono interagire con la regione solo per combattere i narco-trafficanti, o militarmente …
– Il nicaraguense Ortega ha definito Obama “presidente di un impero”, ma aperto a agire in modo diverso dai predecessori.
● Nuova alba nelle relazioni USA-America Latina, sembra scomparire l’antagonismo, entusiasmo per la nuova apertura;
Critiche dai Repubblicani all’atteggiamento di amicizia di Obama con uno dei leader più anti-americani del mondo.
Obamas Offensive im Hinterhof Amerikas
Von Sandra Weiss 20. April 2009, 01:52 Uhr
US-Präsident weicht bei Amerikagipfel auch kritischen Fragen nach dem Kuba-Embargo nicht aus – Diplomatische Annäherung an Venezuela
Puebla – Mit viel Charme und kleinen Gesten des Entgegenkommens hat US-Präsident Barack Obama seine Amtskollegen beim Amerika-Gipfel am Wochenende überzeugt.
– Er versprach eine neue Partnerschaft auf gleichberechtigter Basis, 100 Millionen Dollar für einen Fonds für Kleinkredite und kündigte eine Lateinamerika-Reise an.
– Selbst beim konfliktreichen Thema Kuba wich der US-Präsident keiner Debatte aus. Die 32 lateinamerikanischen Staaten vertreten die Ansicht, das seit 1962 verhängte US-Embargo sei anachronistisch ebenso wie die politische Isolation Kubas.
– Obama räumte ein, dass die Blockade das vorgegebene Ziel – die Demokratisierung Kubas – nicht erreicht habe und daher neue Wege beschritten werden müssten. Daher habe er die Sanktionen bereits gelockert, nun sei aber Kuba am Zuge und müsse über Reisefreiheit und Menschenrechte nachdenken. Der kubanische Präsident Raúl Castro hatte im Vorfeld des Gipfels seine Bereitschaft zu Gesprächen mit Obama signalisiert.
– Offiziell stand Kuba überhaupt nicht auf der Agenda, das kubanisch-nordamerikanische Tauwetter kristallisierte sich aber zum wichtigsten Ergebnis des Gipfels heraus, der am Sonntag in Trinidad und Tobago zu Ende ging.
– Der Generalsekretär der Organisation Amerikanischer Staaten (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, verkündete, die Wiederaufnahme Kubas auf die Tagesordnung der nächsten Generalversammlung der Organisation zu setzen. Kuba war 1962 auf Druck der USA von der OAS ausgeschlossen worden.
– Die Abschlusserklärung des Gipfels kam jedoch nicht zustande – obwohl man hinter verschlossenen Türen lange gerungen hatte. Die sozialistisch regierten Länder Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivien und Honduras hatten erklärt, sie wollten die Erklärung nicht unterzeichnen, da sie "an den Bedürfnissen der Region vorbeigehe".
– Statt die Gründe für die Wirtschaftskrise zu benennen, würden neoliberale Leichen wie der Internationale Währungsfonds (IWF) zur Rettung heraufbeschworen, kritisierte auch Ecuadors Präsident Rafael Correa.
Reibung gab es auch beim Thema Biotreibstoffe.
– Erdöl und Gas produzierende Länder wie Bolivien und Venezuela sind dagegen, wertvolle Anbauflächen dafür zu nützen, während Brasilien – der zweitgrößte Ethanolproduzent der Welt – darin die "saubere Energie der Zukunft" sieht.
– Schon beim letzten Gipfel vor vier Jahren in Argentinien war keine gemeinsame Abschlusserklärung zustande gekommen.
– Damals ging es in dem Streit um das Gesamtamerikanische Freihandelsabkommen (Alca), das Brasilien, Argentinien, Uruguay, Paraguay und Venezuela abgelehnt hatten.
– Diesmal spielte der Freihandel kaum eine Rolle. Lediglich dem kolumbianischen Präsidenten Alvaro Uribe versprach Obama, sich für die Ratifizierung des bereits von seinem Vorgänger ausgehandelten Abkommens einzusetzen. Bisher hatten sich vor allem die Demokraten im US-Kongress widersetzt wegen der Verfolgung von Gewerkschaftern in Kolumbien.
Obama avancierte mit seinem Charme zum umworbenen Star des Treffens. Die lateinamerikanischen Staatschefs rissen sich um Fotos mit ihm.
– Die Anfragen nach bilateralen Gesprächen waren derart überwältigend, dass seine Berater multilaterale Gesprächsgruppen beschlossen.
– Uribe zeigte den Reportern stolz ein Autogramm Obamas, und sogar der linkspopulistische venezolanische Staatschef Hugo Chávez, der Obamas Vorgänger George W. Bush als "Teufel", "Völkermörder" und "Säufer" bezeichnet hatte, ließ sich zu einem freundlichen Händeschütteln und dem Satz "Ich möchte Ihr Freund sein" hinreißen.
– Auch die Wiederaufnahme diplomatischer Beziehungen kam zur Sprache. "Ich glaube, wir machen Fortschritte", kommentierte Obama im Anschluss an das Gespräch mit den südamerikanischen Staaten des Unasur-Bündnisses.
"Obama hat uns aufmerksam zugehört, und wir sind einen wichtigen Schritt vorangekommen", resümierte Argentiniens Präsidentin Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
– Die Beziehungen zwischen den USA und den Nachbarn im Süden hatten unter Bush einen historischen Tiefpunkt erreicht. Damals hatte sich eine antiamerikanische Front, angeführt von Chávez, herausgebildet. Die USA verloren an Einfluss, während sich Brasilien als Regionalmacht und China als neuer Handelspartner positionierte.
– Allzu viel dürfe man von der Charmeoffensive Obamas aber nicht erwarten, warnten Analysten. Lateinamerika befinde sich auf der außenpolitischen Prioritätenliste der USA weit hinten, erklärte der Herausgeber der Zeitschrift "Foreign Policy", Moises Naim.
– Und der US-Historiker Miguel Tinker Salas sagte: "Allein ein neuer Ton wird kaum langfristige Wirkungen zeigen, und viel Konkretes haben die USA wegen der Wirtschaftskrise nicht anzubieten."
Obama Closes Summit, Vows Broader Engagement With Latin America
By Scott Wilson
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19 –
– President Obama concluded a summit of the hemisphere’s leaders Sunday by articulating a broad new agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean, having gained momentum in his bid to repair relations with some of the region’s shrillest critics of the United States.
– In a news conference at the end of the fifth Summit of the Americas, Obama outlined what he is learning about the world and how he intends to engage it based on his experiences here and earlier this month in Europe and Turkey. 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."
– But Obama, whose reception as the first black U.S. president was at times celebratory in a region where race and poverty are intertwined, indicated that the American role in the hemisphere remains paramount given the size of its economy.
– Latin America’s left has long criticized that view as economic imperialism, a sentiment that found voice in speeches here by Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega and Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
– Obama implicitly acknowledged that criticism in Sunday’s news conference, venturing 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. The policy has won Cuban leaders Fidel and Raúl Castro deep goodwill in the region.
– "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," he said on a wind-swept hotel terrace, with the green hills of this seaside capital as backdrop.
Regarding relations with Cuba, which many leaders here urged Obama to improve by lifting the economic embargo, the president said, "The policy that we’ve had in place for 50 years hasn’t worked the way we want it to. The Cuban people are not free."
Obama noted progress, citing Raúl Castro’s recent statement that his country was willing to discuss human rights issues with the United States. Cuba, Obama said, should free political prisoners, reduces its tax on remittances to the island and grant new freedoms to its citizens as a next step in thawing relations with the United States.
– During the summit, Obama presented a broader U.S. agenda for Latin America than under the Bush and Clinton administrations, which focused primarily on trade and counter-narcotics programs.
– Obama, leading a delegation that included five Cabinet members, pledged to work closely with Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada on climate change, public security threats, and bottom-up approaches to economic relations, development aid and lending.
Although Obama heard criticism over heavy-handed U.S. economic policy and political interventions of the past, the anti-American tone did not reach the pitch it did in previous summits. Obama spoke only briefly in a series of closed-door meetings, saying he wanted to listen to the hemisphere’s other 33 democratically elected leaders gathered here. Much of this city’s downtown was sealed off for the gathering, but there were no protests of note beyond the cordon.
– Nicaragua’s Ortega, a longtime U.S. critic, called Obama the "president of an empire" but said he found him open to doing things differently than his predecessors. "I want to believe that he’s inclined, that he’s got the will," Ortega said.
– Asked Sunday what he had learned here, Obama said, "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. And so, in that sense, people are rooting for America’s success."
Despite a pair of handshakes and photo opportunities with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Obama criticized his economic and foreign policies and "inflammatory" anti-U.S. rhetoric.
But he dismissed criticism from some conservatives in the United States that he was coddling Chávez, who said here that he would like to work with the Obama administration on reinstating each other’s ambassadors after a seven-month absence.
– "Venezuela is a country whose defense budget is probably 1/600th of the United States’. They own Citgo," the retail arm of Venezuela’s national oil company, Obama said. "It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chávez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States."
But Obama failed to win over Bolivia’s leader, Evo Morales, who said the U.S. government continues to meddle in his country and called on Obama to publicly repudiate a recently uncovered assassination plot against him. Last year, Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador to La Paz and kicked out the Drug Enforcement Administration on suspicion of working with his political opposition.
Obama said he is "absolutely opposed and condemn any efforts at violent overthrows of democratically elected governments."
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — Leaders from the Western Hemisphere, inspired by a new American president, closed a two-day summit meeting proclaiming a new dawn for relations in the region, which had been marked by bitter disagreements in recent years with the United States.
– The antagonism seemed to melt away, replaced by a palpable enthusiasm for a new openness from the United States and hopes of improved relations for Washington with Venezuela and Cuba, which emerged as a core issue here.
The newfound togetherness was a turning point for the region, leaders here said, at a time when the ability to work together could prove critical to weathering the global economic crisis, which threatens to reverse gains the region has made in alleviating poverty in the past several years.
“There was a spirit of good will that went way beyond the wildest dreams of any one of us,” Patrick Manning, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said Sunday.
– Some of that good will went too far for President Obama’s critics in Washington, where seemingly friendly images of him with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Mr. Obama’s overtures to Cuba drew criticism from Republican lawmakers.
– Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, said on CNN that it was “irresponsible for the president” to be seen laughing and joking with “one of the most anti-American leaders in the entire world,” referring to Mr. Chávez.
And Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, pointed to Cuba’s estimated 200 political prisoners. “Release the prisoners and we’ll talk to you,” he said of the Cuban government on Fox News Sunday, adding, “Put up or shut up.”
Mr. Obama defended his overtures at a news conference on Sunday, saying the handshakes and the polite conversation he shared with Mr. Chávez here were hardly “endangering the strategic interests of the United States.”
Wrapping up a four-day swing through Latin America, he said he believed he had paved the way for “frank dialogue” with countries like Venezuela and Cuba, whose relations with the United States have been badly strained.
But he also sought to calibrate his message, saying Sunday that he had “great differences” with Mr. Chávez and insisting that freedom for the Cuban people would remain the guiding principle of his foreign policy.
“That’s our lodestone, our North Star,” Mr. Obama said.
– Expectations had been low for the fifth Summit of the Americas, where Mr. Obama joined 33 other leaders on his first trip to Latin America and the Caribbean since taking office. The last such summit meeting, in Argentina in 2005, was marked by violent riots and anti-American rants by Mr. Chávez.
Leaders left here almost shell-shocked by the lack of tension at this year’s gathering, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, saying he was “extremely surprised” by what transpired.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada said, “The most remarkable thing about this conference was the failure to fulfill expectations of great confrontation.”
– Despite the warm feelings, some old tensions remained. President Evo Morales of Bolivia confronted Mr. Obama during a private session on Saturday with a charge that the United States had plotted to assassinate him. Mr. Obama responded on Sunday, saying, “I am absolutely opposed and condemn any efforts at violent overthrows of democratically elected governments.”
– And President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, an old Washington nemesis, sought to embarrass Mr. Obama in a nearly one-hour speech filled with anti-American vitriol in which he likened the American embargo of Cuba to the Berlin Wall.
Summit meeting organizers on the island of Trinidad, which was transformed into a virtual police state for three days, tamped down Mr. Chávez’s impulses to grandstand before the cameras by keeping the meetings closed-door. By the conference’s end, Mr. Chávez said he was ready to send an ambassador to the United States.
Still, Mr. Obama said Sunday that the Venezuelan leader’s inflammatory rhetoric had been “a source of concern,” adding that “the test for all of us is not simply words, but also deeds.”
Mr. Obama said he was not worried about the political fallout, saying that he tries to figure out “what’s right in terms of America interests. And on this one, I think I’m right.”
– Hoping to push the process forward, leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have volunteered to aid in a reconciliation between the United States and Cuba. “Brazil would be able to help,” Mr. da Silva said Sunday. In an interview published Sunday in the Spanish newspaper ABC, he said the United States should not wait for Cuba to take the next step in efforts to end their half-century of feuding.
– While Cuba did not dominate all the deliberations, it overshadowed closed-door discussions here about regional energy needs, climate change, regional drug policy and the global economic crisis. The leaders ultimately agreed to work to strengthen the Inter-American Development Bank to assist countries struggling with a lack of access to credit.
Mr. Manning said that the final declaration from Port of Spain did not properly reflect the current global crisis because negotiations over the document began more than a year and a half ago.
He denied that conflicts at the 2005 meeting, or Mr. Chávez’s history of using such events to rail against the United States and others, had anything to do with keeping the leaders’ discussions private. Public scrutiny “stifles a full and free expression of views,” Mr. Manning said, which “could lead in some instances to posturing.”
Mr. Chávez took the initiative Saturday, saying he was naming Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s representative to the Organization of American States, to be his new ambassador to Washington.
Mr. Chávez had ejected the American ambassador to Venezuela in September, saying he had discovered an American-backed plot to remove him from power. Washington responded in kind.
The State Department said that Mr. Chávez approached Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to discuss returning ambassadors to their respective posts in Caracas and Washington. The State Department called it “a positive development.”