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Obama lifts Brazil as a model for peace
AP
Photo
President Barack Obama waves before delivering a speech at the Municipal Theater in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, March 20, 2011. Obama arrived in Brazil on Saturday for the start of a three-country, five-day tour of Latin America.
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO
Immersing himself in Brazil’s poverty and pride, President Barack Obama on Sunday held up the South American nation as a model of democratic change in a time of uprisings and crackdowns across the Arab world and yet another war front for the United States.
Obama glimpsed the city’s cultural extremes and offered the kind of personal engagement that can pay political dividends for years. Less than a day after announcing U.S. military strikes against Libya’s government, Obama made time to kick a soccer ball around with kids in a shantytown.
The competing stories of Obama’s itinerary — a war front in Africa, an economic commitment to South America — divided his time in incongruous ways. By morning, he spoke with his security team about the international assault against Moammar Gadhafi’s defenses; by night, he stood atop Corcovado Mountain and drank in Rio’s storied statue of Christ the Redeemer.
In a speech, Obama celebrated Brazil as a place that has shifted from dictatorship to democracy, moving millions into its middle class and embracing human rights. He underlined that point as unrest sweeps the Middle East and north Africa, leading to dramatic change in some cases and violent crisis in Libya.
Obama is trying to bolster ties to Brazil — and do the same in Chile and El Salvador over the next three days — to boost the economic, security and political interests of the U.S.