The Hindu : Front Page : Obama makes a gesture to Chavez

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Sunday, Apr 19, 2009
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Obama makes a gesture to Chavez

PHOTO: AFP

TURNING A NEW PAGE: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (right) presents U.S. President Barack Obama "The Open Veins of Latin America" by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, which details the exploitation of South America by foreign powers, in Trinidad on Saturday.

PORT-OF-SPAIN: Presidents Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s socialist leader, met on Friday and shook hands on the sidelines of a summit of their hemisphere’s democracies.

Mr. Obama walked across a hotel meeting room to meet Mr. Chavez for the first time, said a senior U.S. administration official who witnessed it and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of the event. The official said Mr. Obama initiated the encounter.

Mr. Chavez was a fierce critic of the United States during President George W. Bush’s tenure.

“It was very, very short,” the official said of the meeting. “The President shook his hand, smiled and then went back to his position in the line.”

The encounter comes as Mr. Obama softens U.S. policy against Cuba, a Chavez ally.

Asked later about the meeting, Mr. Obama elicited laughter from reporters with a brief response: “I said, ‘Como estas?”’ That’s the familiar form of Spanish for “How are you?” — AP

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