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"New," "change"
Buzzwords As Americas
Summit Opens
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago - "New," "change," and "future"
were the buzzwords that rang loud as the
Fifth Summit of the Americas opened here
Friday.
U.S. President Barack Obama, in his remarks
at the opening ceremony, used the word "new"
15 times and "future" 10 times, pledging a
"new beginning with Cuba" and a "new chapter
with Latin America."
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, the
host of the previous Americas summit, called
for a "new starting point" in hemispheric
affairs.
Danial Ortega, president of Nicaragua, urged
changing the economic model on the grounds
that global depletion affects all nations,
especially the poorest ones.
Patrick Manning, the prime minister of the
host nation, Trinidad and Tobago, demanded a
"new approach."
"Let this fifth summit of the Americas be
the first in a new approach that heralds in
the west hemisphere the dawn of a newer and
brighter and better day," Manning said.
The three-day summit, the first one to be
staged in a Caribbean country, has a
future-oriented theme: "Securing Our
Citizens' Future by Promoting Human
Prosperity, Energy Security and
Environmental Sustainability."
All four previous summits were held in
bigger countries: Miami, the United States,
in 1994; Santiago, Chile, in 1998; Quebec
City, Canada, in 2001; and Mar del Plata,
Argentina, in 2005.
Fernandez of Argentina stressed the
importance to "look at a new starting
point... based not on subordination but on
coordination and cooperation; ... on
integration but not intervention."
She called for lifting a 47-year-old trade
embargo against Cuba, commending the Obama
administration for its move earlier this
week to end restrictions on Cuban-Americans'
travel to Cuba and their remittances sent
home.
"All of us today should know that we are
facing a historic moment," Fernandez said.
"We need to address the problems... with no
rhetoric that in the end only made positions
more radicalized."
Ortega of Nicaragua, in his remarks,
assailed past U.S. policies such as those
practiced by former President Ronald Reagan,
and called for the inclusion of Cuba back
into the Organization of American States
(OAS).
Cuba was suspended from the OAS in 1962.
In his lengthy deliberation, which lasted
about 50 minutes, Ortega complained about
his three-hour wait aboard the airplane on
the tarmac Friday afternoon.
He called for increased financial assistance
to help address the immigration problem,
blaming it on underdevelopment and poverty.
Obama, the fourth among five speakers who
addressed the ceremony, vowed to open "a new
chapter of engagement" that will be
sustained throughout his administration.
"To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be
prisoners of past disagreements," Obama
said, before veering from his prepared text
and expressing his gratefulness to Ortega
for not blaming him for something that had
happened when Obama was an infant.
He was referring to Ortega's recount of the
U.S. invasion of the Bay of Pigs of Cuba on
April 17, 1961, exactly 48 years ago, when
Obama was only three months old.
The opening ceremony, which also included a
glittering cultural performance after the
speeches, was preceded by amicable exchanges
between Obama and Ortega, and between Obama
and Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela,
which has had a rocky relationship with
Washington in recent years.
Obama "walked across the room and introduced
himself to President Chavez, and President
Chavez said a couple of things," according
to White House transcripts of a briefing by
a senior administration official.
"And while they were all chatting, President
Ortega of Nicaragua came in and introduced
himself to the president. And I think
President Obama said in Spanish, it was his
'gusto' to meet him, as well," the official
said.
The initial, apparent amity may ease worries
about sharp, hostile exchanges at the next
stage of the summit, but Manning, the
premier of the host nation, warned against
letting any particular issue to dominate the
participants' deliberations.
"It will be a tragedy if we allow any one
issue to be a great source of discord among
us," he said.
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