Hugo Chavez gives Barack Obama a book to read

On Friday, the two crossed paths in the Port of Spain hotel where the Summit is being held, and Mr. Obama walked over to be greeted with a handshake and smiles. Mr. Chavez's office said he told the new President: I want to be your friend.

At a meeting this morning, Mr. Chavez walked over to Mr. Obama, gave him a friendly pat, and handed him a book -- The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano. It is a book that argues the continent has been scarred by U.S and European exploitation.

And a lunch-time photo of all 34 leaders today, Mr. Obama smiled at Mr. Chavez, and reached over for a handshake again.

It's far from clear whether the exchanges are the first sign of better relations with the fiery and mercurial Mr. Chavez, however. Mr. Chavez has built his populist support in Venezuela on anti-American rhetoric and has used the country's oil revenues to build alliances in the region.

Two of Mr. Chavez's leftist Latin American allies, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Bolivia's Evo Morales, have welcomed the change Mr. Obama represents, but said they are waiting to see the proof.

Mr. Morales said he was surprised by the welcome message of equal partnership and non-interference Mr. Obama delivered in his first speech at the summit Friday night, but added that he's yet to see the difference 100 days into his presidency..

In Bolivia, we have yet to feel any change. The policies of conspiracy continue, he said.

His views echoed those Mr. Ortega expressed in a long rambling speech on Friday, when he railed against a global capitalist conspiracy and U.S. interventionism in Latin America and notably Cuba while saying he hopes Mr. Obama really does represent change.

Mr. Obama s first exchanges with the other 33 leaders here, particularly Mr. Chavez, and his offer of a new beginning with Cuba, have dominated the summit so far.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has had two private chats with Mr. Obama, aides said, including a private chat of about 15-minutes on the margins of a meeting Friday night, and another brief 10-minutes session where they discussed the economy today, followed by and photo-op.

Mr. Obama dodged a question about whether he would takes tips from Canada on Cuba as the two men strolled, but said: I take tips from Canada on a lot of things.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has come to push free trade to leaders that often rail against it, has so been largely unseen amid the Obama-mania.

Local newspapers in Trinidad and Tobago did, however, report that Mr. Harper was forced to wait in his plane on the airport tarmac here so that Mr. Obama could land after him and be escorted to the summit before him.

Mr. Harper's aides insisted they had not been told that was the reason for the Canadian prime minister's long wait inside his prime ministerial Airbus.

Mr. Harper has also met Mexican President Felipe Calderon, speaking about the economy and drug crime, and with Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, where they discussed the free trade agreement between the two countries that is now before the Canadian parliament for ratification, aides said.

Mr. Harper spoke in a closed-door plenary session this morning about human prosperity, where he stressed that not only jobs and incomes are at risk during the current economic crisis, but also health, environment, and equal opportunity.

He also focused on free trade and fighting protectionism but those sentiments have hardly been seized on here, where most leaders blamed the recession on a financial collapse in wealthy countries, notably the U.S., are concerned about jobs at home, and want more commitments on aid and development.

Mr. Harper met with leaders of the 15-member Caribbean Community today, where he hoped to give a push to launching negotiations on a free trade agreement but he apparently did not overcome their reluctance to sign any deal that does not include a heavy emphasis on Canada providing development aid. He did, however, announce a $17-million expansion of a Canadian scholarship program for Caribbean students.

Mr. Harper's aides said after that session they now do not anticipate that negotiations for the free trade agreement will be launched in the next few days although they had hoped to at least move close to that when Mr. Harper visits Jamaica on Monday and Tuesday.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Hugo
• Chavez
• Barack
• Obama
• Noam
• Chomsky
• Latin
• America
• Intervention
• Cuba
• Fidel
• Castro
• Raul
• Relations
• Venezuela
• Havana
• Caracas

[luisbeck007]

Chavez did not kill Martin Luther King, nor Kennedy, nor one million people for oil with lies, nor 3000 nuclear weapons pointing to every nation in the world, nor extreme communist corrupted 700 billion dollars per year on military expenditures, nor intelligent service agencies sending mails with Anthrax Virus to its own population while blaming other country, nor Kings on its constitution, nor world record of drug addicts, nor Nazi retarded on CNN or FOX news, nor 13 trillion dollars debt.

[luisbeck007]

Chavez did not make 50 years of cold war to make billions of poor people around the planet; Europe and USA did it... Chavez did not kill 50 million people in world war II to play the hero and big business with weapons... while making slaves in Africa for example...

[jampt1989]

That's an awesome book!

P.S. Chavez is an idiot

[uncleruckus714]

@luisbeck007 Chavez didn't kill 90-95 percent of the indigenous people in the Americas also

[reforest4fertility]

They forgot to mention the book's author, Eduardo Galeano. The book is highly & widely praised as a must read, at least for North Americans.

[DmhCZ]

@loudenanuma

please do not compare castro with chavez.

they are very different in some of the main things.

[PrisonerNumber9653]

Loud, like many places in the Americas Haiti has elected leaders who believe in economic justice and equality...and had the US back a coup that ran him off and establish a Wall Street friendly government. You're right it's what Haiti needs, but it won't happen, Washington won't allow it.

[loudenanuma]

I would like for haiti to have a president like Castro, or Chavez to look out for haiti

[ABECT30]

@luisbeck007 yes but he did many other bad things

[NubiaSahara]

I hope president Obama reads that book. Las Venas Abiertas de America Liatina  changed my life. After I read it I became a different person, and I like this new person.