Historic Encounter: Obama, Raúl Castro to Have "Interaction" at Summit
Historic Encounter: Obama, Raúl Castro to Have "Interaction" at Summit
U.S.-Venezuela tensions could change the dynamic at the Summit and “take the bloom off the rose” in terms of renewed relations with Cuba, points out COA’s Eric Farnsworth.
President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro briefly shook hands at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela in 2013, and then chatted on the phone last December before announcing plans for renewed diplomatic relations.
Now, the big question is what type of encounter the leaders of once-hostile neighbors might have in Panama during the seventh Summit of the Americas next Friday and Saturday. Both will attend — a first in the history of the intra-regional summits that began in Miami in 1994.
“This opens the door for everyone,” José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, said in January. “We can now deal with matters together. It releases a lot of tensions and pressures....”
....Maduro has said he plans to present Obama with a petition, with millions of names, denouncing U.S. aggression.
It’s a “stunt,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas, but “it could change the dynamic at the Summit” and “take the bloom off the rose in terms of the Cuba issue.”
“I think it’s clear that just making changes with Cuba isn’t the magic bullet to achieve consensus in the hemisphere,” he said....
