Analysis of Summit in Trinidad Tobago -Obama with Latinoamerica -

While there were reservations by some countries on particular aspects of the Declaration, the leaders wanted to send a strong signal of solidarity and cooperation. The collective view was that the Fifth Summit was a tremendous success, pervaded by a unique spirit of openness and goodwill, and that it heralds the beginning of a new era in inter-american relations



During one session at the Summit of the Americas devoted to democratic governance, Obama did not speak at all, McDonough said. He merely listened and took “copious notes”.
Obama prepared carefully for the latest summit. The White House knew beforehand that Cuba would be a focus, aides said. Obama was not about to end the embargo, but he did make a concession before arriving in Trinidad, lifting restrictions on Cuban Americans who wish to visit family.






Speaking at the opening ceremony, Obama said: “The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba.” The statement followed Cuban president Raúl Castro’s comment a day earlier expressing willingness to discuss a wide range of traditionally off-limit topics, including human rights.
As it turned out, Obama’s statement, which included, “I am prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues – from human rights, free speech, and democratic reform to drugs, migration and economic issues”, was not enough to defuse the issue.





Increasingly Latin America has made US policy on Cuba the measure by which to test Obama’s pledge to improve relations in the region. That’s the case not only for leaders on the left like Chávez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, but also for moderates such as Argentina’s Cristina Fernández.

Fernández used her opening remarks at the summit to call for lifting of the “anachronistic blockade”. Cuba is “a theme that is on everyone’s mind”, Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim said. “The big test was progress in the relations with Cuba. I think a small step in the right direction has been taken. And now what we need is direct dialogue.”
Shortly after Fidel Castro took power half a century ago, Washington broke relations with Cuba and persuaded most of the hemisphere to follow suit.
Every country has since reversed itself, except the US.
Experts on the region said that to Latin American leaders, Obama’s actions on Cuba may seem small.
Administration officials have cast the liberalised travel policy as historic. But past presidents have gone further.
Julia Sweig, author of a forthcoming book called Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, said former president Jimmy Carter dropped all travel restrictions to Cuba. And another Democratic president, Bill Clinton, allowed Americans to visit Cuba as part of certain cultural exchange programmes.
“What they [Latin American leaders] do know is that he only opened the door a little to a handful of Americans,” Sweig said. “And some know it was once open much more. By taking only a limited step, he [Obama] paradoxically turns it into more of a Cuba summit than he would prefer.”

There are many interesting points about this Meeting comparing with G20 , this one generated a genuine CHANGE . We should never forget how have been the relationship between United States with all Latinoamerica, for different aspects .




Let see that the Central America : Cuba , Mexico, Belize,Costa Rica, El Salvador,Gautemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
"Central America" may mean different things to different people in the world according to the context:
In English, Central America is considered a region of the North American



Geopolitically, it usually comprises seven countries – Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama Mexico, in whole or in part, is sometimes included.[9] Some geographers include the five states of Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán together representing 12.1% of the country's total area.

The list of 13 countries and one dependency in South America is based on the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas

South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean. North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. South America has an area of approximately 17,840,000 square kilometres (6,890,000 sq mi), or almost 3.5% of the Earth's surface. As of 2008, its population is more than 380 million, according to estimates of country populations in the The World Factbook

South America ranks fourth among all continents in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America).
The list of the country are :Brazil, Argentina,Bolivia,Chile,Colombia,Ecuador,Guyana, French Guiana,Paraguay ,Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Surriname

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday the Summit of the Americas had created a chance for a new era in relations between the United States and Latin America.
He was speaking at the end of the summit in Trinidad and Tobago where U.S. President Barack Obama said he saw “potential positive signs” U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela, and even appeared to win approval from Venezuela’s left-wing President Hugo Chavez. The Brazilian leader said the moment was right for talks between Caracas and Washington

Since taking over the leadership of the Summits of the Americas Process, Trinidad and Tobago has called, consistently, for greater cooperation, integration and solidarity among our nations as the primary vehicle for ensuring peace, security and prosperity for all the peoples of the Americas. This summit has been a historic event for us here in Trinidad and Tobago and for the wider Caricom region and has exceeded by far all our expectations.

The Port-of-Spain summit was characterised by mutual respect and an eagerness and genuine desire to work together on solutions to the many challenges facing the hemisphere. Several leaders expressed the view that Port-of-Spain marks a turning point for inter-American relations and for building a stronger community of nations. Latin America and the Caribbean are now at a different crossroad in their relations with each other and with the United States of America. With the changing political landscape, the terms of engagement have changed and occasioned by an altogether different posture that is based on mutual respect and equality among partners. The leaders of the hemisphere agreed that we now have a real opportunity to put inter-American relations on a completely new footing which sees all countries, big or small, developed or developing as equal partners. Such relations must be built on the basis of new vision and a people-centred development strategy.




The deliberations over the past day and a half centred on the three main pillars of the Declaration of Commitment of Port-of-Spain — human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability.




The discussions also focussed on the re-integration of Cuba into the inter-American system, and on developing relevant responses to the current global financial crisis. Several presidents and prime ministers called for an end to the exclusion of Cuba from the summit process and the inter-American system. There was a clear consensus that the reintegration of Cuba in the inter-American relations is an essential step toward the building of a more cohesive and integrated Americas.




The very open and conciliatory stance of President Obama and other leaders at the Summit has heightened optimism for the full engagement of Cuba in Hemispheric affairs in the not too distant future. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago looks forward to the day when Cuba is fully embraced into the folds of the inter-American family.





At the time of this Fifth Summit, the world economy is facing a severe financial crisis, which has led to a wide-spread global economic slump. Economic statistics released by the International Monetary Fund in January 2009 indicate that the world economy grew by just 0.5 percent in 2008 but is expected to record negative growth for the first time in 60 years, in 2009. While the economies of the Western Hemisphere fared much better in 2008 growing on average by 4.8 percent, economic growth is expected to slow sharply in 2009 to around 1.0 percent.



The countries of the Americas now face higher than expected declines in the price and volume of exports, restrictions in access to trade financing, difficulties in accessing other kinds of external finance and reduced remittances from migrant workers.



The current economic slump has depressed commodity prices, constrained the growth of investment, weakened labour markets and lowered business and consumer confidence. They are also not immune from the negative social consequences of the current global crisis which is threatening to derail the hard-won gains that achieved over the past two decades. The social consequences are likely to be quite significant. Many people are losing their jobs and are being forced back into poverty.



The impact on the smaller economies has been even more pronounced. A protracted crisis will create severe economic and social hardships in these vulnerable economies and can derail them from the path of sustainable development that they have been working so assiduously to achieve.

Developed countries also have an important role to play in addressing the weaknesses in their financial systems, in order to restore trust in the markets.

The Declaration of Commitment of Port-of-Spain, which was the document negotiated over the last six months by 34 countries, outlines measures to be taken at the technical level towards the goal of securing our citizens’ future. The declaration makes broad reference to the financial crisis and as such, does not address, in any detail, the specific implementation measures. The issue of the economic crisis must be dealt with very carefully and therefore, Ministers of Finance of the Western Hemisphere, who will meet in Chile in July, will be directed to examine the crisis in greater detail, taking into account the outcomes of the London G-20 meeting, and to clearly define practical measures to be taken by all countries