Obama visiting violence-plagued El Salvador
San Salvador - Security was tight in crime-plagued El Salvador on Tuesday as US President Barack Obama was set to wrap up a Latin America tour in which he hailed a new era of partnership after a troubled past.
The three-nation trip - which has been overshadowed by Arab uprisings and the launch of air strikes against the forces of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi - was to conclude in one of the world's most dangerous countries.
Large numbers of heavily armed police and soldiers were deployed around the presidential palace and the hotel where Obama will be staying as US military helicopters circled overhead.
Security was also tight around the cathedral of San Salvador, where Obama is to pay a visit on Wednesday, and the archaeological site of San Andres, 40km to the west, which will be visited by his family.
Obama and his delegation were due midday on Tuesday after leaving Chile. The US leader has also visited Brazil as part of his first tour to Latin America as president, in a visit seen as aimed at reasserting US influence in the region.
Bound by common values
In Chile, Obama said the United States and Latin America were bound by common values and a shared history as he sought increased trade to boost the faltering US economy.
"I believe that in the Americas today, there are no senior partners and there are no junior partners, there are equal partners," Obama said, speaking alongside Chilean President Sebastián Piñera in Santiago.
"In each other's journey we see reflections of our own. Colonists who broke free from empires. Pioneers who opened new frontiers," he said. "This is our history. This is our heritage. We are all Americans. Todos somos Americanos."
In a thinly-veiled attack on regional foes like Cuba and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Obama railed against "leaders who cling to bankrupt ideologies to justify their own power and who seek to silence their opponents".
Obama's Latin America swing has been upstaged by events in Libya, where US-led air and missile strikes are enforcing a no-fly zone authorised by a UN Security Council resolution and aimed at protecting rebels.
The strikes on Gaddafi's forces have divided Latin America, with Colombia, Peru, Panama and Chile voicing support and Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay and Nicaragua condemning the attacks.
Obama has evoked the successful struggle against dictatorships in much of the region as a model for the popular uprisings under way in the Arab world.
"At a time when others around the world are reaching for their own rights and struggling for their own sense of dignity, Chile sends a powerful message."You too can write a new chapter in the story of your nation; you too can be free," Obama said at the presidential palace, where the democratically-elected president Salvador Allende died during a US-backed military coup in 1973.
Obama's charm offensive could help open up Latin America's surging economies to US firms and shore up export markets as Washington ties up important free trade deals with key regional partners Panama and Colombia.-
Source: AFP
The three-nation trip - which has been overshadowed by Arab uprisings and the launch of air strikes against the forces of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi - was to conclude in one of the world's most dangerous countries.
Large numbers of heavily armed police and soldiers were deployed around the presidential palace and the hotel where Obama will be staying as US military helicopters circled overhead.
Security was also tight around the cathedral of San Salvador, where Obama is to pay a visit on Wednesday, and the archaeological site of San Andres, 40km to the west, which will be visited by his family.
Obama and his delegation were due midday on Tuesday after leaving Chile. The US leader has also visited Brazil as part of his first tour to Latin America as president, in a visit seen as aimed at reasserting US influence in the region.
Bound by common values
In Chile, Obama said the United States and Latin America were bound by common values and a shared history as he sought increased trade to boost the faltering US economy.
"I believe that in the Americas today, there are no senior partners and there are no junior partners, there are equal partners," Obama said, speaking alongside Chilean President Sebastián Piñera in Santiago.
"In each other's journey we see reflections of our own. Colonists who broke free from empires. Pioneers who opened new frontiers," he said. "This is our history. This is our heritage. We are all Americans. Todos somos Americanos."
In a thinly-veiled attack on regional foes like Cuba and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Obama railed against "leaders who cling to bankrupt ideologies to justify their own power and who seek to silence their opponents".
Obama's Latin America swing has been upstaged by events in Libya, where US-led air and missile strikes are enforcing a no-fly zone authorised by a UN Security Council resolution and aimed at protecting rebels.
The strikes on Gaddafi's forces have divided Latin America, with Colombia, Peru, Panama and Chile voicing support and Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay and Nicaragua condemning the attacks.
Obama has evoked the successful struggle against dictatorships in much of the region as a model for the popular uprisings under way in the Arab world.
"At a time when others around the world are reaching for their own rights and struggling for their own sense of dignity, Chile sends a powerful message."You too can write a new chapter in the story of your nation; you too can be free," Obama said at the presidential palace, where the democratically-elected president Salvador Allende died during a US-backed military coup in 1973.
Obama's charm offensive could help open up Latin America's surging economies to US firms and shore up export markets as Washington ties up important free trade deals with key regional partners Panama and Colombia.-
Source: AFP
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