Obama Talks About Race at South America Summit

“The president put it on the table very explicitly” at the opening ceremony, said a senior Obama administration official who participates in closed-door meetings with the president. “Inequity in this hemisphere is extreme, and a hemisphere blessed with a lot of resources should not be suffering the way it is. Race is a part of that in many cases.”

In his opening speech, Obama said, “We have to stand up against any force that separates any of our people from that story of liberty – whether it’s crushing poverty or corrosive corruption; social exclusion or persistent racism or discrimination.

“Here in this room, and on this dais, we see the diversity of the Americas,” Obama said. “Every one of our nations has a right to follow its own path.”

In a meeting Saturday with leaders of an association of South America’s 12 countries, Obama spoke for less than a minute before saying he preferred to listen, said a senior Latin American diplomat in the room.

Before the meeting, Chavez handed Obama a book, “Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina,” or “The Open Veins of Latin America.” The work, published in the 1970s, is by Eduardo Galeano, an Uruguayan writer. It discusses the history of European colonization and what Galeano sees as the malign influence of the United States.

The last Summit of the Americas, in 2005, was dominated by differences over trade, which the Bush administration saw as the best way to promote economic growth.

But much of the region’s recent growth has come from exports of natural resources, often controlled by small groups of families or foreign companies. The income gap has widened in some countries.

By contrast, Obama announced Saturday that the United States would contribute to a new $100 million microfinance loan program for the region. And during a meeting with 14 Caribbean leaders the previous evening, he said “bottom-up growth” should be the approach each leader takes to reduce poverty, a senior administration official said.

“It’s pretty clear that what President Obama is working toward is a global consensus,” said Lawrence Summers, director of the White House’s National Economic Council. “When you have a storm like this one, you need a collective recognition that the poor need help, not more policy hectoring.”