Obama's Latin tour: Reengaging America

by Mark Silva

During a four-day spree of diplomacy that started in Mexico on Thursday and returns President Barack Obama to Washington today, the new American president has attempted to stake productive new relationships on three fronts within a fractured region:

-- In Mexico, where a worsening drug war has spawned violence on the streets that exceeds the U.S. military's own casualties in Iraq, and where leaders contend that not only an insatiable U.S. demand for illicit drugs, but also a U.S. supply of weaponry is fueling the fight -- add to this equation the problem of illegal immigration in the U.S. where the majority of an estimated 12 million undocumented workers have come from Mexico, with Obama pledging to take up the issue of "comprehensive immigration reform" once again.

-- In Cuba, where a repressive regime and its treatment of political prisoners has prevented the U.S. from normalizing relations with a neighbor barely 90 miles away, with Obama's lifting of restrictions on travel to the island for Cuban-Americans last week, his allowance of remittances for families and his encouragement of cell-phone use on the island have brought a remarkable response from Cuban leaders: A willing to talk, to put "everything on the table,'' as President Raul Castro has said.

-- Throughout Latin America, where a feeling of not only neglect by the U.S. but also decades of economic exploitation -- as addressed in the book about the "Open Veins'' of Latin America by the Uruguayan writer that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave to Obama over the weekend, along with a handshake and two pats on the back -- have strained U.S. relations with two dozen nations within its own hemisphere.

Larry Summers, one of the president's chief economic advisers, says Obama will return to Washington with "a commitment to shared growth'' throughout the region.

Obama returns from Mexico with an agreement to confront the causes of violence, he returns to Washington with the potential for negotiations with Cuba and he returns with a handshake and an addition for his bookshelf from Venezuela. The next chapters of all this will unfold in the coming months and years, but it's a remarkable introduction.

Today, before leaving the Summit of the Americas, Obama met with leaders of just the Central American nations:

"Obviously, we have a long history of relations between the United States and Central America -- that is a critical partner on a whole range of issues. We have the leadership here democratically elected, and provided a lot of important information during the course of this summit,'' Obama said today.

"But obviously when you're in a group of 36,'' he said of the hemispheric summit, "it's more difficult to focus just on the regional issues. So this gives me an opportunity to hear more directly about both challenges and opportunities in the region.

"So I'm very grateful that they've taken the time to meet with me and I'm looking forward to hearing more about how the United States can be an effective partner with all the countries represented.''

Larry Summers, chairman of the president's National Economic Coiuncil, said: "He's going to be coming back with a relationship with Latin America and a commitment to shared growth throughout this hemisphere that is stronger than the commitment that existed before he took this trip.

"That commitment is going to show itself over time in more rapid growth in Latin America, which is going to mean more rapid growth in the American economy -- an American economy whose ultimate health is going to be very critically dependent on exports, giving us a very substantial scope for growth, for a more balanced pattern of growth,'' Summers said.

"You know, if you look around the region, whether you look in Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, a number of different countries, they really have been moving along the path that the president has been laying out,'' he said. "This included fiscal stimulus.

"If you look across the region, obviously the United States has the largest economy, the largest part of it, but they'll be approaching or perhaps slightly exceeding a trillion dollars in fiscal stimulus packages that have been announced. And that is to the benefit of the whole global economy and certainly to the benefit of the economy of the Americas.''