Breakthrough?: Obama Exchanges Greetings with Chavez; Entertains Talks with Cuba'

Summary

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As the first full day of meetings began on the twoisland nation of Trinidad and Tobago, [Barack Obama] exchanged handshakes and pats on the back with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who once likened President George W. Bush to the devil. 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, which chronicles U.S. and European economic and political interference in the region.

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

"We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms," Obama said to loud applause. "But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations." He also extended'a hand to a leader Ronald Reagan spent years trying to drive from power: Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. The Sandinista presi-dent stepped up and introduced himself, U.S. officials reported. Yet soon after, Ortega, who was ousted in 1990 elections that ended Nicaragua's civil war but who was returned to power by voters in 2006, 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.

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Breakthrough?: Obama Exchanges Greetings with Chavez; Entertains Talks with Cuba'

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit last week, listening to their complaints about past U.S. interference in the region and even reaching out to Venezuela's fiery l...

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