Obama: Bush fostered Chávez rise

'Negligent' foreign policy created void

Senator Barack Obama renewed his call to ease restrictions on Cuban-Americans, which CANF head Jorge Mas Santos endorsed. (Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press)

MIAMI - Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama yesterday accused President Bush of complicity in the rise of his most fervent nemesis in Latin America through what Obama called a "negligent" US foreign policy that has created a void for anti-American leaders to extend their reach in the region.

"No wonder, then, that demagogues like Hugo Chávez have stepped into this vacuum," Obama said yesterday, referring to Venezuela's autocratic president who called Bush "the devil" during a United Nations speech and who has become a villain among American conservatives.

"The United States is so alienated from the rest of the Americas that this stale vision has gone unchallenged, and has even made inroads from Bolivia to Nicaragua," he said.

Obama made the charge before a luncheon at a Miami hotel hosted by the Cuban-American National Foundation, a nonpartisan group that has for decades held a hard line against easing relations between the United States and Cuba and found itself typically allied with Republicans.

"To be a Democrat meant that you were labeled a communist, and this organization was as reactionary as it gets," said Augusto Lopez, a Cuban-American lawyer supporting Obama. "To host Obama today reflects the sea change in Cuban-American politics down here."

Obama used the venue to reiterate his call to ease federal restrictions on remittances and travel by Cuban-Americans to the island, a position that Jorge Mas Santos, the CANF chairman, endorsed in his introductory remarks.

Obama also delivered a bolder call for "direct diplomacy" with dictator Raúl Castro, a policy that John McCain dismissed as naïve and counterproductive in a speech before a different Cuban-American gathering here days earlier. "I believe we should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime," McCain said on Tuesday.

Though Cuban-Americans as a constituency tend to vote Republican, Obama addressed a largely friendly crowd. Still, his audience exhibited a common skepticism of Democratic candidates who have preached a new approach toward Cuba.

"He's a communist," Osmaira Lopez, a 78-year-old cosmetologist who came to Miami from Cuba 47 years ago, said of Obama. "You know he says 'Change'? What does he want to change?"

Obama presented his Cuba policy as part of a vision for broader security and economic engagement between the United States and other countries in the Western hemisphere.

Bush's reliance on "tired blueprints on drugs and trade, on democracy and development," Obama said, had allowed not only leaders like Chávez to rise but inadvertently helped Asian and European political and business interests expand their influence in Latin America.

"We are failing to join the battle for hearts and minds," he said.

Obama's campaign said his speech was in stark contrast with McCain's, delivered just miles away - a "box-checking exercise that touched on very few issues in a very vital part of the world," according to foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough.

"People want to hear something other than the traditional 'Next year in Cuba' without any way of achieving it," said Stephen Zack, a Miami lawyer who has been involved in Democratic causes but said he is not supporting a presidential candidate. "They want to know, 'How are you going to do that?' rather than just give lip service to the concerns everyone in this room has."

In a statement released yesterday, McCain's campaign criticized Obama for what they called "political expediency" and scolded him for "reckless judgment" exhibited in his speech.

"Senator Obama's promises of unilateral concessions to Cuba's dictators even in advance of an unconditional summit meeting with Raúl Castro is exactly the wrong approach to free the people of Cuba," according to McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

While exit polls have shown Obama has struggled to connect with Latino voters during the primaries, some in attendance said the changing demographics of Miami's Cuban community - typically among the most conservative voting blocs in American politics - could offer him a warmer welcome than past Democratic nominees have received here.

"As time goes on, and the younger generation of Cuban-Americans comes into power, we become more open to change and new ideas," said Marlene Quintana, president of the Cuban-American Bar Association. "What there isn't anymore is a taboo about being Cuban-American and being a Democrat."