Dear Latin America:

Get your birth rates down; get educated; and better develop your economies for the long term. Then you can join the true American "club."

Dont' tell the US what to do. You have no standing.

Obama, hmmmm

This may be more than just a subtle hint. China's a moving in. We'll see what the Confused in Chief will do.

Obama just went to insure the flow of mind altering drugs to Liberal Democrats and the neighborhood Democrat Drug Gangs in the major US cities.

I used to work in (Plan Colombia) for the Department of State. Yes, in Colombia S.A. One day we were in the field, I asked one guy when the heck this war was going to end...meaning the war on drugs in Colombia. He asked me how much my check was, then the payroll for the NAS, the lobbyists, the Pentagon, CIA, ATF, you name it. I said yeah, quite a few large checks out there because of this, and he said that is why the war will not end. It is like a Vietnam down there, regarding the terrain. So yes it is tough to seek out and destroy each and every little hectare of cocaine, because once you eradicate one hectare, three more are growing. But the other side of the coin is if the politicians in Bogota would actually do something about it, rather than use it as a tool, perhaps we would see a decrease from that country. But who am I.....lol

South and Central America is the bread-basket of the world..

yet here we are wasting our time with people of the east who have nothing to offer but hate and chaos, as we go chasing this crazy idea we can change them into civilized and caring society's !! We can be the envy of the world if we just use our heads and strengthen our priorities with our neighbors down south, and elevate this region as the most important area of the world when it comes to food production and bio diversity.. Let the europeans worry about themselves for a change, being they haven't done so thus far and allowed the middle east to heavily influence them, many with anti-american ill will and at our expense !! It's time for a big change in american policy when it comes down to taking care of the many hopeless problems of this part of the world.. and try to find out who our true friends really are !!!!

thanks for message columbia but like our president cares. He is very short minded and doesnt care about south america. Bin laden dead but he still gives out money to pakastand and keeps our troops in afganistand instead of full withdrawl and who cares taliban takes that country over its land locked anyway. But our pontus is very subborn and sucks when it comes to foreign policy and he appeases wrong nations and betrayes allies and in my opionon made our enemies see him as super weak

The country is "Colombia" and not Columbia. Those that fail to spell the country correctly or make bigoted remarks like "ragheads" already lost any credibility of being listened to here. The author of this article wrote "U.S. influence has waned in recent years......". The waning U.S. influence started when Bush took office and imposed visa sanctions on the only 2 countries that didn't need visas (Uruguay and Argentina). Bush claimed that South America posed a threat to our security since their borders were not well protected. The intelligent Chinese saw the opportunity to pick up trade in Latin America and Africa. They swooped in like vultures and the U.S. lost the trade. Implying that "recent" loss of influence by the Obama administration is completely wrong. When Cuba offered to send many doctors to New Orleans after Katrina, Bush refused. Many people died there and rather than taking that opportunity to also improve relations with Cuba, it was Bush that refused. Obama has been trying to relax the embargo with Cuba. We have flights from the U.S. to Cuba for Americans that qualify. I'm an American living in Brazil and it's appalling to see the mindset back home by some ignorant people who refuse to read and think they know something about places they've never been to. Before you criticize our President or our neighbors, look at your own flaws whether they're hatred, bigotry or even education. We're a first world country that should be an example for others but when people spell incorrectly and spew their hateful thoughts on line, it's embarrassing.

Since coming to office, President Obama has turned his back on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), excluding Haiti, of course, for humanitarian reasons.

By organizing and coming to this Summit, Obama is just looking for a slap on the back, in an election year, by Latin-American leaders, so that voters in this country feel he can now handle foreign affair issues in his backyard, even taking into account the relative inexperience of Hillary Clinton in the region.

After the Summit, Obama will again turn his back on his neighboring Latin countries.

In some measure this is a response to the region´s wishes that the USA no longer play a big role in regional institutions such as the OAS. That´s why the region´s governments created an OAS replacement organization called CELAC – (2/23/10) Community of Caribbean and Latin American States – and that excludes the United States and Canada, the CIA, but includes Cuba.

So, from a practical point of view, it does not make any sense that any the region´s leaders convene at this Summit, whose agenda is, in any case, somewhat meaningless and useless.

I believe that at the Summit, main issues that will conform its Agenda, include drug traffic flows from the region to the US, pinpointing hypocritically (the US) that they have done all they can to control consumption here (demand) and that that´s the end of it, with the full weight of doing away with drug trafficking on the LAC region´s governments; poverty reduction will also be an issue, but the region´s economies have done a good job in this respect, in the last five years, while in the meantime, poverty in this country has increased dramatically to about 47 million; more equality is also an issue, and with poverty reduction, Latin America and the Caribbean have reduced inequality substantially, the middle class there is growing, while in this country, Congress is not willing to approve a tax package that will tax more heavily the earnings of the rich and richest, thus rapidly eroding the economic base of the middle class who are then forced to move into growing poverty ranks; other pending issues include physical insecurity and drug dealing within countries´ borders, paid for assassinations, more free trade agreements with the US, economic growth, intra regional trade, democracy, and human rights. And, of course, the US will not mention Guantanamo or Iraq. By the way, the US should get the hell out of Guantanamo, purely just for ethical reasons. The infamous embargo on Cuba will not be discussed or the fact that Cuba will have to be invited to these summits if another one is to take place. The issue of the Falklands will not be mentioned and the Falklands will continue to be British. Finally, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will be congratulated, when in fact the IACHR should be reprimanded for meddling in Ecuador´s internal affairs, against the local judges´ ruling in two cases of slander against Correa.

It is against this background – a weak, meaningless, and useless Agenda – that Presidents Chavez, Correa, and Ortega decided not to attend this god forsaken Summit of the Americas.

I liked the part. United States is the biggest consumer and so must sort out the problem at its end.

The USA and Canada veto the resolution signed by all Latin American countries to get rid of the Yankee embargo against Cuba.

What Latin America must do is to kick the gringos out of the OAS. Neither Canada nor the USA has anything in common with the history, culture, religion, language, race, or future of Latin America.

The USA has only exploited the natural resources of those countries by swapping their democratically elected presidents with bloody dictators.