After his handshake with Cuba’s president, US President Barack Obama is looking to the Summit of the Americas to chart a more peaceful future with Latin America, a region that has long chafed at Washington’s dominance.
The encounter before the opening ceremony, together with a surprise message sent by Pope Francis, set expectations for substantive dialogue among the more than 30 regional leaders yesterday.
The title of the seventh edition of the summit is “Prosperity with Equality,” a theme touched on in a letter from the Argentine-born pontiff reminding the leaders that poverty has not fallen as fast as their economies have grown in the past decade.
Photo: AFP / PRESIDENCIA PANAMA
“It is not enough for the poor to pick up the crumbs that fall from the table of the rich,” according to the letter, which was read by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. “Direct action for the most vulnerable, just like small children are in a family, should be the priority of those who govern.”
Obama also touted a decision to request US$1 billion in aid from the US Congress for Central America to speed up development that aims to make streets there safer and reduce the flow of migrants to the US.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had barely disembarked from his airplane before he took a symbolic jab at Washington by visiting a monument honoring victims of the 1989 US invasion of Panama.
A crowd of several hundred greeted Maduro at the memorial in the capital neighborhood of El Chorrillo, which saw the heaviest fighting during the invasion that removed former Panamanian president Manuel Noriega.
“Maduro, stick it to the Yankee!” they chanted.
“Never again a US invasion in Latin America,” Maduro said.
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