[News] Latin American, Caribbean leaders seek union - Joke about Bush shoe attack

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Two articles follow

Latin American, Caribbean leaders seek union

Bradley Brooks, Associated Press

Thursday, December 18, 2008

(12-18) 04:00 PST Costa Do Sauipe, Brazil --

Latin American and Caribbean leaders called for the creation of a 
regional union that would exclude the United States and oppose 
outside interference Wednesday in a summit hailed as an historical 
expression of independence.

With 33 nations represented by heads of state or other top officials, 
it was the largest regional gathering of its kind that did not 
include the United States or a European power. It also marked the 
international debut of Cuban President Raul Castro.

Summit participants called for an end to the U.S. embargo of Cuba, 
and Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales even encouraged Latin 
American nations to expel their U.S. ambassadors unless the incoming 
government of President-elect Barack Obama lifts the embargo on 
communist-run Cuba.

"We should give the new government of the United States a deadline in 
order to end the embargo," said Morales, who kicked out the U.S. 
ambassador in September over a different issue, accusing him of 
siding with violent opposition. "If the newly elected U.S. government 
does not lift the economic embargo, we are going to lift our ambassadors."

Latin American leaders, including those from countries like Mexico 
and Colombia that have been at odds with Cuba for years, rallied 
around Castro, who replaced his ailing brother Fidel as Cuba's leader.

But Morales' call for breaking relations with Washington found little support.

"I'm more careful than Evo Morales," Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio 
Lula da Silva, said. "We have to wait for the new U.S. president to 
take office and see what his proposals are for Latin America and 
Cuba. This will show us whether or not there was really a change."

A spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, declined to 
comment on Morales' suggestion.

"Our policy toward Cuba seeks the promotion of the peaceful 
transition to democracy," said Orna Blum.

Few concrete results came from the two-day gathering, held on the 
sun-drenched coast of Bahia state in northeast Brazil. The summit 
came 178 years after the Dec. 17, 1830, death of South American 
independence leader Simon Bolivar, whose name was repeatedly invoked 
at the meeting.

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico suggested a new organization - 
which he labeled the Union of Latin American and Caribbean nations - 
should be created to tackle political and economic challenges. He 
said it would exclude the United States and Canada and model itself 
on this week's summit.

Other leaders suggested the proposed union could act as an 
alternative to the Organization of American States, which some see as 
too U.S. dominated.

The global financial crisis was another recurring theme at the 
summit, with leaders saying more integration was needed to circle the 
wagons and better protect the region from economic shocks.

In a declaration at the summit's end, leaders "recalled that the 
developed countries caused the crisis and that they should therefore 
assume the costs for its solution."

Da Silva noted that it had been 200 years since most Latin American 
nations gained independence, yet "this is the first time since 
independence that we've managed to gather all the countries" without 
outside interference.

Calderon expanded on the theme in suggesting the new regional union.

"Two hundred years is a long time to wait, but it is better late than 
never," he said at a joint news conference with Silva and other 
leaders. "It would be good to celebrate the bicentennial of our 
independence with a true Latin American-Caribbean union."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/18/MN5H14Q2B1.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 13 of the San Francisco Chronicle
********************************************************************************

Latin leaders joke about Bush shoe attack

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BG7MK20081217

Wed Dec 17, 2008 5:20pm EST

COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil (Reuters) - Latin American leaders meeting in 
Brazil this week couldn't resist poking fun at U.S. President George 
W. Bush over his recent shoe-throwing incident in Iraq.

"Please, nobody take off your shoes," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio 
Lula da Silva joked to reporters at the start of a news conference on 
Wednesday.

An Iraqi journalist had hurled his shoes at Bush at a news conference 
in Baghdad on Sunday, calling him a dog.

"In this heat, if anybody takes off their shoes, we'll know right 
away because of the smell," quipped Lula, reaping laughter from 
reporters and politicians alike.

Earlier in the day, Lula threatened to throw a shoe at Venezuelan 
President Hugo Chavez, Bush's fiercest critic in Latin America, if 
the long-winded leftist leader spoke beyond his allotted time.

Officials from 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries burst into 
laughter at the summit meeting, which showcased the region's growing 
independence from Washington and welcomed Communist-run Cuba for the 
first time.

Even Cuban President Raul Castro, on his first trip abroad since 
taking over from his ailing brother Fidel earlier this year, was 
overheard taking a stab at Bush over the shoe affair.

(Reporting by Raymond Colitt, editing by Anthony Boadle)





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