WASHINGTON — Stepping back onto the world stage, President Barack Obama this week will meet Western Hemisphere leaders at a summit where he hopes to salvage alliances strained by grievances that the Bush administration ignored Latin America in its overriding focus on Iraq and terrorism.
Obama is a popular figure in the region and can expect an enthusiastic welcome. But he also will confront deep resentments over U.S. policies that he is reluctant to change. Other leaders want the administration to normalize relations with Cuba and resurrect a ban on the kinds of assault weapons being smuggled into Mexico, commitments Obama is unwilling to make.
Still, Obama is bound to get a better reception than George W. Bush, the least popular American president ever among Latin American countries, polls showed.
Before this week’s trip, U.S. diplomats said a main U.S. goal is a modest one: showing the other nations it wants to be a collegial partner. In that sense, Obama is sticking to a template established at the recent Group of 20 summit in London. Heeding criticism that the U.S. tended to operate unilaterally under Bush, Obama is signaling that he wants to listen.
“We see this trip as part of the process of the United States re-engaging with this hemisphere,” said Jeffrey Davidow, a former ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela who is advising the White House on the trip.
Hoping to blunt criticism over the Cuban embargo, the Obama administration announced plans this week to ease travel restrictions.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., recently returned from Cuba and a meeting with Fidel Castro. In an interview, Rush said that Obama’s actions had the effect of deflecting criticism of the U.S. “somewhat.” Still, Rush predicted that Cuba will be “the 800-pound gorilla” at the summit.
Mexico may present the thornier diplomatic challenge during Obama’s trip.
Obama seems in no hurry to resurrect a U.S. ban on assault weapons to stem the flow of firearms to Mexico. But Mexico wants more on that front.
“It must be said that since the ban expired in 2004, our seizures of assault weapons in Mexico have gone through the roof,” Arturo Sarukhan, Mexican ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview.
“There’s a direct relationship between the expiration of the ban and the increase in assault weapons coming into Mexico and being seized by Mexican authorities.”
