Obama's Cuba Shift Opens New Era in Latin America Ties

With a historic meeting with Cuba's president and a brief chat with Venezuela's leftist leader, President Barack Obama sought to turn the page on decades of rocky U.S. ties with Latin America.

The Summit of the Americas in Panama City became the stage for history-making diplomacy for Obama, who has intensified his engagement with the region in his second and final term in office.

The highlight was his talks on Saturday with Cuban President Raul Castro, a more than hour-long conversation that crowned their effort to bury decades of Cold War-era hostility.

But he also spoke for a few minutes with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, seeking to calm rising tensions over U.S. sanctions that describe Caracas as a threat to American national security.

He also found time for a bilateral meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who accepted an invitation to visit Washington on June 30, two years after she angrily scrapped a previous trip over a U.S. spying scandal.

But the potential game-changer was his get-together with Castro, as the historic tensions between their nations have been a source of discontent in the region for decades.

Addressing some 30 leaders who attended the summit, Cuba's first in the event's 21 years, Obama said he had pledged to open a "new chapter of engagement" with the region.

"This shift in U.S. policy represents a turning point for our entire region," he said.

"The Cold War's been over for a long time. I'm not interested in having battles that frankly started before I was born," said Obama, who was born in 1961, the year Washington broke ties with communist Cuba.

- Venezuela troubles -

Washington had complicated relations with Latin America throughout the Cold War, supporting anti-Marxist forces in battles against leftist guerrillas in Central America and backing right-wing military dictatorships in South America.

"Relations between the United States and Latin America are different starting today," said Santiago Canton, a director at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Right, a U.S. non-profit organization.

"The ghost of Cuba has been present at all the bilateral and multilateral meetings between the United States and Latin America. This ghost is gone now," he said.

But Obama has had tough relations himself with Venezuela's Maduro, whose regional allies Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia rallied around him during the summit.

"Ultimately, resolving the tensions between the U.S. and Cuba will help improve relations with the rest of the region," said Joy Olson, executive director of the Washington Office on Latin America, a regional policy group.

"That said, the history of the U.S. with Latin America is not one that is not overcome with one meeting, as you can see with the speeches of some leaders like Maduro and (Argentina's Cristina) Kirchner," Olson said.

Latin American nations were irritated by the description of Caracas as a U.S. national security threat in an executive order that sanctioned seven Venezuelan officials over alleged rights abuses during an opposition crackdown.

"This is not just an aggression against Venezuela, it's also against all of Latin America," said Bolivian President Evo Morales.

- Calming tensions -

Obama sought to ease tensions by dispatching a senior diplomat to Caracas last week and saying he did not really believe Venezuela posed a threat.

Maduro told the summit that he respected but did not trust Obama. Late leader Hugo Chavez's protege has accused Washington of backing opposition plots to overthrow him.

Maduro complained that Obama had ignored his invitations to speak since the Venezuelan leader was elected in 2013, but the two finally talked for the first time on the margins of the summit. 

The White House said Obama used the brief moment to tell Maduro that "our interest is not in threatening Venezuela, but in supporting democracy, stability and prosperity in Venezuela and the region."

While analysts say the Maduro meeting could help, it was the image of the U.S. and Cuban leaders seeking to bury the Cold War that could transform the region.

"It definitely has the potential of changing fundamental stumbling blocks in improving relations with the hemisphere," Olson said. "But it's going to be a long and protracted effort."