Biden meets with Latin American leaders, pledges new era of relations

Miami Herald

LELAND BAXTER-NEAL

Vice President Joe Biden told Central American leaders Monday that the United States must first grow its own economy before it can extend a helping hand to Latin America.
''Economic growth in the United States is central to us being able to do anything,'' Biden said.
At a small weekend gathering here -- in preparation for next month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago -- Biden met with the presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador and Panama, as well as representatives from Honduras and Nicaragua and the Prime Minister of Belize.
Biden thanked the leaders for their honesty and promised a new era of U.S.-Latin American relations, promising direct contact with each country. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who Biden called ''a good and extremely valued friend of the United States,'' had raised the possibility of being a spokesman for the region, which Biden appeared to reject.
''We want direct, immediate and personal contact with each of the leaders and each of the countries in the region,'' Biden said after meeting with the Latin American leaders.
Biden, however, offered few concessions on some of the top concerns in the region: financial assistance from the United States to boost worsening Central American economies, an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and a halt to the deportations of illegal immigrants in the United States.
''We are not putting together a policy for the hemisphere, we are going to put together a policy with the hemisphere,'' Biden, repeating a comment made by U.S. policy officials within President Barack Obama's administration.
''We are in a listening mode,'' Biden said, promising not to ``impose our view on all of these and many other issues.''
On Cuba, Biden said that the Obama administration is ''willing to reach out'' to the communist-ruled nation, but that its actions would be ``something short of saying we lift the embargo.
''That doesn't mean we can't ease the tensions,'' he said. ``Over the next decade, there are likely to be and need to be changes in the relationship with Cuba and the United States.''
The leaders from Central America also asked for a boost in anti-narcotics aid under a program called the Merida Initiative to battle the increasingly violent drug trade in their countries.
Biden said that the United States has budgeted $110 million through the Merida Initiative for Central America for 2009 -- up from $60 million -- and expected the same amount for 2010.
''We are committed to be in this with our colleagues until we have solved the problem,'' he said, adding that the administration ``may very well continue with this amount of money, and possibly, down the road, more.''
On immigration, Biden said the Obama administration would not stop the deportation of illegal immigrants in the United States, calling on Central Americans to put themselves in the shoes of the United States where ``the standard of living for tens of millions of Americans is decreasing.''
''There will be no immediate response to deportation,'' Biden said. ``There will, God willing, be a comprehensive reform of our entire immigration policy.''
Many Central American economies depend on the money sent home from immigrants working in the United States.
Biden also called on his Central American colleagues to do their part to improve conditions in their nations so their workers don't feel the need to travel to the United States in search of work.