Obama sees chances of better Cuba, Venezuela ties

PORT OF SPAIN, (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack  Obama said yesterday he saw “potential positive signs” of  better relations with Cuba and Venezuela, but he called on Cuba  to back them up by giving its people more political freedom.
Obama spoke after attending a Summit of the Americas in  Trinidad and Tobago that he said focused on “launching a new  era of partnership” between western hemisphere countries.
Communist-ruled Cuba was excluded from the meeting, but the  summit was dominated by speculation over the prospect of an end  to the long conflict between Washington and Havana after Cuban  President Raul Castro said last week he was open to talks.
Obama also received friendly overtures during the summit  from left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose close  alliance with Cuba and fierce criticism of U.S. policies in the  region had strained relations with Washington.
“For the past few days, we’ve seen potential positive signs  in the nature of the relationship between the United States,  Cuba and Venezuela,” Obama told a news conference.
“We’re going to explore and see if we can make progress,”  Obama added, recalling that Raul Castro had said he was willing  to talk about political prisoners and human rights.
Obama added: “But as I’ve said before, the test for all of  us is not simply words but deeds”.
Referring to his move last week to ease parts of the  47-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, he said the policy “in  place for 50 years hasn’t worked the way we want it to”.
“The Cuban people are not free and that’s our lodestone,  our North Star, when it comes to our policy on Cuba, he said.
He reiterated a call for Havana to reciprocate by freeing  political prisoners and addressing freedom of expression and  religion. These issues should not be “brushed aside”, he said. “There are ways that Cuba can send signs that they are  serious about real change,” Obama added. In the past, Havana has rejected placing such conditions on  an improvement in ties as meddling in its sovereignty.
Obama’s meetings and contacts during the Fifth Summit of  the Americas in Port of Spain mended broken diplomatic fences  in a region where America-bashing has long been accepted and  where former President George W. Bush generally was unpopular.
“What we showed here is that we can make progress when  we’re willing to break free from some of the stale debates and  old ideologies that have dominated and distorted the debate in  this hemisphere for far too long,” Obama said.
Although Obama had to field a chorus of calls to lift the  trade embargo on Cuba, his cooperative diplomatic style went  down well with his Latin American and Caribbean peers.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the  summit had created a chance for a new era in relations between  the United States and Latin America.
“Obama took a plunge into Latin America … We created a  new way of viewing each other and of overcoming our differences  by debating them,” Lula told reporters.
Venezuela’s Chavez, who told Obama “I want to be your  friend”, also indicated his willingness to cooperate with the  new U.S. administration in improving ties. “We have the  political will to work together,” Chavez told reporters.’
Obama rejected suggestions that contact with die-hard critics of Washington like Venezuela, which is an OPEC member  and major supplier of oil to the United States, was a sign of  weakness.
“It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or  having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez we are endangering  the strategic interests of the United States,” he said.
A draft summit declaration, which stated a commitment to  work together to tackle the hemisphere’s economic, energy and  security challenges, was issued at the end of the meeting.
But there was no formal joint signing ceremony as a group  of mostly leftist presidents led by Chavez had previously  rejected the document.
The group, including Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras, said  it did not address Cuba’s exclusion from the summit or provide  solutions to the economic crisis threatening the region. The summit’s host, Prime Minister Patrick Manning of  Trinidad, said the declaration was adopted by consensus even  though some refused to endorse it, and Latin American and  Caribbean leaders hailed the summit as a success.
In contrast to a previous summit in Argentina in 2005,  which ended in discord, the Port of Spain meeting hummed with  goodwill.