Obama begins trip to Latin America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Add this tough chore to President Barack Obama’s journey to Latin America: convincing leaders from half the globe that the behemoth to the north is a humble, eager partner.

Obama’s priority list for the trip that begins today is stacked with matters of concern across the Western Hemisphere — the crippling recession, the warming of the planet, the trafficking in drugs, the gloom of poverty. Crime, despair and political unrest south of the border can all undermine U.S. interests.

But when Obama ventures south, improving relations with the rest of the Americas is his main mission, not just a means to achieve other goals. He is out to assuage peers from Central America, South America and the Caribbean who, rightly or not, felt ignored during the Iraq-dominated Bush years.

The motivation for the new U.S. president is more than just being a good neighbor. It involves money and security.

Despite lingering skepticism about the U.S., Obama’s plans to visit Mexico and attend a hemispheric summit in Trinidad and Tobago are causing a buzz of excitement in the region.

“All eyes will be strongly focused on him,” said Peter DeShazo, a former State Department official who runs the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Obama starts in Mexico City today, a boost for President Felipe Calderon as he takes on the drug cartels and surging violence that is unnerving leaders on both sides of the border.

Then Obama spends Friday to Sunday at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, the two-island nation off the northern coast of South America.

The gathering, the fifth summit of its kind since 1994, brings together 34 heads of state or government from the Americas.