His speech of opening pronounced in the Summit of the Americas established a renewal in the relations between the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean Sea.

Port Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. - It was not the first appearance of the president Barack Obama in the world panorama. It had already demonstrated his diplomatic skills in the summit of the G-20 in Great Britain. Pero la Cumbre of The Americas in Trinidad and Tobago was representing a much major challenge for him: 33 heads of state of their own continent, many of which had a possible clash with the United States like part of his agenda.

Possible shocks had already been anticipated with our neighbors to the south of the border. The wounds caused by the ravages of the cold war still remain opened in some countries. Many suffer having been ignored virtually for eight years by the administration Bush. They all would be pressing so that the United States eliminates the sequestration against Cuba and the biggest critic of this country, the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, would do all the possible to steal the show from him.

Nevertheless, from the moment in which the summit started, the president Obama managed to dismantle a possible attack. During his opening speech it established the tone of what would be a successful summit and a renewal in the relations between the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean Sea. He prevented the topic of Cuba from turning into a problem, facing it of face. And with a simple hand hug with Chávez it domesticated to the beast and loved to the multitudes.

" For fortune the president Ortega did not blame me for anything that happened when it had 3 months of born", answered Obama later that the Nicaraguan president spent almost one hour criticizing the American intervention in the region. Recognizing errors of the past, Obama said to his companions that it is a time to go forward and not to re-live through the past, and warned that the United States cannot be blamed by all the problems of the hemisphere.

In three plenary meetings the heads of state discussed the topics of the agenda to try to extract forward matters of common interest for the whole continent: economy, environment, alternative energy, public safety and drug trafficking. But there were the topics foreign to the agenda those that attracted the attention and holders did. The hand hug with Chávez, the book started to Obama by the Venezuelan president, the "Obamanía" that prevailed still between the heads of state who left of the protocol pictures were taken with the president of the United States. Even, Álvaro Uribe of Colombia revealed that it would put frame to a note that Obama gave him.

There were, nevertheless, other outstanding facts out of the agenda; the most important, the signs of a change in the relations between the United States and Cuba. In an apparent answer to the North American decision to raise the restrictions of trip and mailing of remittances for persons with relatives in the island, the Cuban leader Raúl Castro said in Venezuela during the summit of the DAWN that it is ready to speak with the United States about everything, even of human rights, freedom of the press and political prisoners. The president Obama answered saying that this might be the moment for a change in the relations with Cuba.

In his last press conference Obama he said that it was finding interesting that many of the leaders spoke about how Cuban doctors have dispersed across the region, and his countries depend on them. "It is a reminder for us in the United States that if our only interaction with many of these countries is of military character and the struggle against the drugs, then we cannot be developing the connections that can, with the time, increase our influence".

Cuba was the only country that was not present in the summit saved only for governments chosen democratically. Cuba was suspended from the Organization of the American States in the years ‘60 by a provision in the regulations that it excluded like member to any country linked with the Chinese / Soviet axis. General Secretary José Miguel Insulza announced that the possible elimination of this provision will be discussed in the next meeting of the OEA in Honduras. "It is senile", he affirms. "China is the principal commercial associate of the United States and the Soviet Union it does not exist already", he remembered. The question is if Cuba would be ready to join the OEA if the opportunity happens. Both Fidel and Raúl Castro have done called so that it is dissolved.

It is not surprised that any conservatives were criticizing the performance of the president Obama during the Summit of the Americas, especially his will to open a dialogue with Cuba and his gesture of greeting combative Hugo Chávez. In spite of everything, Obama achieved something very promising: to change the perception of many into our continent of which the United States is the arrogant super potency that till now has tried to impose his will.


(c) 2008 by Maria Helen Salinas.