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Barack Obama Shakes Hands with Hugo Chavez
US President Barack Obama has shaken hands with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a bitter foe of the former Washington administration.
The surprise encounter came at the opening ceremony of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, where Mr Obama has made Cuba a key priority.
Barack Obama exchanges a friendly handshake with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez (Photo: AP)
After several days of the US and Cuba trading warm words that have hinted at a
détente after a half century of hostility, Mr Obama said that he was seeking "a
new beginning" with Havana.
But it was his unexpected handshake and the smiles he exchanged with Mr Chavez that caught many at the summit by surprise.
Mr Chavez's populist government in Caracas has sought to generate support by railing against Washington at every opportunity. He once described President George W Bush "the devil".
But he was warned by his fellow Latin American leaders last week that he must tone down his anti-Americanism at the summit.
Asked what he had said to Mr Chavez, Mr Obama replied with a smile: "I said como estas".
Mr Obama meanwhile made his diplomatic overtures to Cuba as he joined 33 other leaders of Western Hemisphere states at the summit in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago late on Friday.
Only Cuba is not represented after being thrown out of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in 1962.
But Mr Obama said: "The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba. I know there is a longer journey that must be travelled to overcome decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day."
His comments came a day after Cuba's President Raúl Castro said that the communist island state was ready to discuss "human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners - everything". Significantly, he also acknowledged that the regime "could be wrong".
Mr Obama announced earlier in the week that the US was easing restrictions on travel and remittances for Cuban-Americans and challenged Mr Castro to make concessions of his own.
In his speech in Trinidad, Mr Obama renewed his promise for his administration to engage with the Cuban government "on a wide range of issues", including human rights, free speech, democratic reform, drugs, immigration and the economy.
"Let me be clear: I am not interested in talking for the sake of talking," the president said. "But I do believe that we can move US-Cuban relations in a new direction."
Earlier, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, also welcomed Mr Castro's comments. "We welcome his comments, the overture they represent, and we are taking a very serious look at how we intend to respond," she said.
In another sign of changing times, the OAS Secretary-General, Jose Miguel Insulza, said he would ask the 34 member nations to invite Cuba back into the fold. Mr Insulza is known for his political caution and is thought unlikely to have floated the idea without the approval of Washington.
White House aides said Mr Obama had been particularly encouraged by Mr Castro's concession that Cuba "could be wrong".
However, the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs made clear that while Mr Castro's new openness to change was welcome, the US was not abandoning its demand for Cuba to start making concrete moves toward greater freedoms.
"They're certainly free to release political prisoners," he said aboard Air Force One as Obama flew into Trinidad. "They're certainly free to stop skimming money off the top of remittance payments as they come back to the Cuban island. They're free to institute a greater freedom of the press."
- Posted in
89 Comments so far
Show AllWas anyone else as surprised as I was that Cuba is offering talks on every issue? Looks like diplomacy can work...who would have thought it? Certainly not the neocon psychos that ruled us for almost a decade.
the article was going great until "... the whitehouse spokesman robert gibbs..." he's gotta go.
still, there is hope, if only a sliver.
White House spokespeople always suck. That's their job, they're the President's CYA people.
But Dana was a cutie!
Crap! She is a vile and repulsive nazi. She has prostituted herself to some of the vilest scum on earth.
I was going to make a nazi fetish joke here, but nevermind
And yeah...Condie is a piece of ass as well...
Cut it out you guys. Enough with the woman-hating language.
Any chance of an admittance the US "could be wrong" on some counts too?
Like the many assassination-attempts on Castro?
Or on demanding that Cuba remain a vassal-state of the USA?
Or that "socialism" - on the principles of "Freedom, Equality, Soldiarity" and "From everyone according to ability, to everyone according to need" - might have some good parts the US would benefit from adapting?
And - let's face it - this sounds like Obama's talking about US banksters and corporations:
"They're certainly free to stop skimming money off the top of [...] payments ... They're free to institute a greater freedom of the press."
Exactly -- it's okay if western union skims 10% off the top, but not the cuban government. And it is okay for the US to limit the remittances, too. And don't get me started on free press or political prisoners. Okay for the US to criminalize poverty and cage more people than any country in the frickin' world. Disgusting.
But I loved this part: "Como estas." Not "Como esta", but the familiar form. Not sure if Chavez is smiling because it was so unpresidential of him to do that, or because he thought it was so cool. I feel very strongly it could be either way.
Looking at the picture more, I am thinking that Chavez is feeling hopeful. When I heard him speak in 2006 at the WSF, he talked about how great it would be if one day, the people of the US woke up and joined Latin America in the people's struggle against the greedy neocons and military/industrial complex and reclaim our world and resources for the goal of sustaining life on the planet. (but I am sure the little attempt at Spanish (using the friendly, familiar form) gave him at least a little chuckle -- it would just have to).
Don't forget the Cuban 5!
Among the people the Cuban five spied on were the Elian Gonzalez family. If you are a foreigner and come into the US and spy on American families b/c you don't like their politics you have committed a crime. The Cuban 5 are right where they belong.
Yes, truly the Cuban 5 are worse than this man, who still walks free:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles
Or these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacardi#Castro
You can't be for real.
Lous Carriles was just indicted.
The Bosch character is a criminal but the family is permitted to oppose the Cuban government. Now if they go down to Cuba and do it they will be arrested by the Cuban government...just like the Cuban 5 were arrested when they came into the US.
I'm not only real, I'm also logical. Maybe you should try it sometime....
For anyone who did not have time to read my links, here is what "steel_gray" is equating...
This:
-(Allegedly) spying on Elian Gonzalez' family.
With these:
"Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-Castro militant. A former CIA operative, Posada has been convicted in absentia of involvement in various terrorist attacks and plots in the Western hemisphere, including involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people and has admitted to his involvement in other terrorist plots including a string of bombings in 1997 targeting fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots."
"Embittered Bacardi helmsman Jose Pepin Bosch bought a surplus B-26 bomber with the hopes of bombing Cuban oil refineries (the bold plan was foiled when a picture of the bomber appeared on the front page of The New York Times). He was also allegedly involved in the CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro; documents uncovered during Congressional investigations into John F. Kennedy's death bring to light a message outlining how he had plans to assassinate Castro, his brother (Raúl Castro) and Che Guevara. The RECE (Cuban Representation in Exile) also receives funding from Bacardi family members.
"More recently, Bacardi lawyers were influential in the drafting of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act which sought to extend the scope of the United States embargo against Cuba. In 1999 Otto Reich, a lobbyist in Washington on behalf of Bacardi Rum, drafted section 211 of the 1999 Omnibus appropriations act, a bill that became known as the Bacardi Act. Section 211 denied trademark protection to Cuban businesses products expropriated after the Cuban revolution, a provision keenly sought by the Bacardi family. The act was aimed primarily at Havana Club brand in America, which had been registered by the Cuban government. Section 211 has been challenged un-successfully by the Cuban government and the European Union in US courts; however, the act has been ruled illegal by the WTO (August 2001). The U.S. Congress has yet to re-examine the matter."
And a national chauvinist to boot (what does them being foreigners have to do with *justice*? National borders are all but meaningless to anyone with the slightest radical political conscience).
"What does them being foreigners have to do with justice" Well in the US if you are an agent of a foreign government, like the Cuban 5 were, then you are required by law to register with the US government. Failure to do so will result in prison time. It's our law. You are required to respect our laws when you are in the US. If you don't like the law or feel that you are unable to abide by it then you ought not enter the US.
Now it's your right to have the believe that borders are wrong...just realize that NO nation in the world subscribes to your beliefs. It would seem that "National borders are all but meaningless to anyone with the slightest radical political conscience" is the position of a microscopic fringe movement.
Good luck getting your party on the ballot...
No one here wants to hear your bullshit. Why don't you hop in a time machine and go annoy some ancient progressives by arguing against the anti-pragmatic and fringe nature of the abolitionist movement. Quit wasting my time.
So you're comparing slavery to borders?
Where exactly did i equate the actions of Bacardi to the Cuban five?
I wasn't even the one who brought up the Bacardi family.
When the Cuban 5 entered the US without registering themselves with the US government they violated the laws of the US. I did equate that if the Bacardi family were to walk down main st. in Cuba they would like wise be arrested but this was in no way comparing the actions of the two parties...you should read slower next time so you don't get confused.
If an American citizen were to travel to Cuba and spy on Cuban citizens what do you think would happen?
It sounds hopeful, but beware,Cuba, of the American corporate suits when they start decending on Havana with money and drugs. Remember Michael Moore, something about running and hiding when the white American male shows up in a suit.
That had a lot to do with why we were ran out of Cuba, right? The
"suits" from America wanted to run everything.
Next come the developers and condos and shopping malls on Cuban beaches.
Chavez can't be trusted at all. This will end badly, though I'm sure you will all blame it on the US.
Very enlightening post, dipstick.
Middle of the road my ass. That's how all the Regressives I know refer to themselves. None of them want to admit that they support the outlandish BS coming from Rush and Fox. And I can't blame them. Why don't you just come clean and admit you're wrong. Then after a long sweaty workout, or a good drunk and a puke, come join us on the progressive front. There's plenty of room for us all. Peace!!
Maybe Hugo Chavez has infected Mr. Obama with something of the spirit of socialism with that secret power handshake.
Thank you President Obama for your courageous good will gesture toward Venezuela and Cuba in the face of right wing opposition and threats.
Amen!
This was not a "courageous" act. I tend to agree with those who caution, "Beware the man who speaks with a forked tongue. Obama is quite facile with the cosmetic gesture.
This is great ! Just what we need to see. Now lets get some action !
This demonstrates the beginning of a reconciliation,
and I applaud both leaders for this gesture at the Summit of the Americas.
It is a "courageous good will gesture," as ezeflyer noted.
Check out the picture! That's a soul shake. The rightwing loony media will go crazy. Obama may be short on substance, but what style.
The moment I have been waiting for! Obama and Chavez are the best leaders we can hope for inthis moment in time.
I'm very happy to see the sincere smiling going on between these two. I think Hugo Chavez is a brave new leader with the right ideas. Socialism in some form is what human beings need in order to be community oriented, interdependent cooperative assets to each other and the world. I also am skeptical. The U.S. is not the "good guys" in the world anymore. I would hate to see Chavez lured into a capitalist trap and Obama being his downfall.
Chavez will not be lured into any capitalist trap. He is a true socialist and much too smart for that. The smiles did seem sincere. I almost think Obama admires
Chavez and wishes he could be as courageous in standing up to the greedy capitalists. Then again, maybe it's just more phoniness from Obama.
People do not wake one morning and decide to hate some one . Hatred is usually instigated by some religious group or some racial group . But for one person to call another person "THE DEVIL" some thing has to have caused it . I can understand a self appointed religious leader advocating "TAKE HIM OUT" because that kind of leader needs an enemy to enhance a position . But that so called leader never said why "WE COULD TAKE HIM OUT" . Now that they need not fear reprisals from this administration maybe some reporter with spine could ask our new friend , Mr Chavez , what our last president did to be called "THE DEVIL" and let the rest of us know his answer . This could be the revelation on the century .
Chavez has been very clear from April of 2002 as to WHY he called Bush The Devil.
Where the hell have you been for the past 7 years, shopping?
Two points:
#1. I lived in Venezuela for most of the year 1998 and have visited there a few times since then. I knew both rich and poor people there. Just about all poor people support Chavez and most rich people oppose Chavez. Poor people are the majority of people in Venezuela, so if one believes in democracy, then support the people's choice of their leader. BTW, just like in the USA, the rich control the media in Venezuela.
#2. Having traveled and worked in several Third World countries, I can say this as a fact for me. I have seen a lot more doctors and teachers from Cuba than from the USA in my travels and the USA has a much larger population than Cuba. I have, also, seen a lot more USA military than Cuban military in my travels. If there is a God, who do you think He will favor: a country that exports doctors and teachers or a country that exports military?
Actually Cuba did export its military to Angola as well as a few Caribbean islands. It may have been a few decades ago, but don't think Cuba under Castro has been free of being imperialistic.
They also exported their military to Tanzania under Nyerere.
Some of the best agricultural advisors for underdeveloped countries.
USAID had a hard time getting their agricultural advisors out of the capital city. Too far from the commissary and the cocktail parties.
We could learn a lot from Cuba...
Aside from Cuba's useful policy of urban farming, I'm not sure their agriculture people are too good at teaching methods of self-subsistence...Cuba still grows too much cash crops and imports too much of its food.
Cuba had 500,000 troops in Angola. Defending Angola from the Racist USA supported South African controled invasion of Angola. As soon as Angola was safe from South Africa the 500,000 Cuban troops left in three months.
Oh ok, thanks for the info. I wonder how Cuba got 500,000 soldiers over there, then out again so quickly.
Yeah - to fight on the side of the PEOPLE.
Don't be foolish--when Cyba sent military troops to countries such as Angola it was not to TAKE OVER those countries.
That would have been imperialistic.
They sent troops to help countries determine their own post-colonial futures.
There is some really sloppy thinking going on in this thread.
For Castro, that was one of the toughest decisions that he has had to make (according to what was written in the late Jamaican PM Michael Manley's Book: "Jamaica - Struggle in The Periphery"). Castro had agonized over the decision to send Cuban troops to fend off the US and Apartheid South Africa's proxies in Angola.
Hahaha. Cuba's "imperialism" in Angola was directly aimed at, and achieved, an end to apartheid. You just made a point for the pro-Cubans.
Deepa
"In his speech in Trinidad, Mr Obama renewed his promise for his administration to engage with the Cuban government "on a wide range of issues", including human rights, free speech, democratic reform, drugs, immigration and the economy."
There can be a better dialogue between the US and Cuba only when both the countries acknowledge honestly their own shortcomings with regards "democracy", "freedom", "Human rights".... The above article and the statements of US government officials reiterate the traditional perception that "the US is the champion of human rights, freedom and democracy". This needs to go. Then only there can be a better dialogue.