RIO DE JANEIRO — Immersing himself in Brazil’s poverty and pride, President Barack Obama on Sunday held up the South American nation as a model of democratic change in a time of uprisings and crackdowns across the Arab world and yet another war front for the United States.
From Rio’s glamorous beaches to a notorious slum to an elegant theater, Obama glimpsed the Rio’s cultural extremes, offering the kind of personal engagement that can pay political dividends for years. Less than one day after announcing U.S. military strikes against Libya’s government, Obama made time to kick a soccer ball around with kids in a shantytown.
The competing stories of Obama’s itinerary — a war front in Africa, an economic commitment to South America — divided his time in incongruous ways. By morning, he spoke with his security team about the international assault against Moammar Khadafy’s defenses; by night, he was to stand atop a mountain and admire Rio’s world-famous statue of Jesus.
Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes pounded faraway Libya.
It was all summed up by one image: Obama adeptly juggling a soccer ball as his aides helped him juggle his agenda.
In a speech, Obama celebrated Brazil as a place that has shifted from dictatorship to democracy, moving millions into its middle class and embracing human rights. He underlined that point as unrest sweeps the Middle East and North Africa, leading to dramatic change in some cases and violent crisis in Libya.
“As two nations who have struggled over many generations to perfect our own democracies, the United States and Brazil know that the future of the Arab world will be determined by its people,” Obama told an invitation-only crowd inside an ornate hall here.
“No one can say for certain how this change will end, but I do know that change is not something that we should fear,” he said. “When young people insist that the currents of history are on the move, the burdens of the past are washed away.”
