PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD (AP) - Blame it on an overcrowded presidential nightstand.
President Barack Obama’s advisers cited a long reading list and the fact he doesn’t read Spanish as reasons the U.S. leader might not read the book Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave him. The socialist leader on Saturday offered Obama “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,” by Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs wouldn’t say if Obama planned to read the book, which argues Latin America “continues to work as a servant.”
“It continues to exist to serve the needs of others as a fountain and reserve of petroleum and gold, copper and meat, fruits and coffee, raw materials and food destined for rich countries that benefit more from consuming them than Latin America does from producing them,” according to the book.
Gibbs said the Spanish language would be a barrier to the president, who does not read the language.
“I think it’s in Spanish, so that might be a tad on the difficult side,” Gibbs said.
For his part, Obama said he was ready to reciprocate with one of own best-selling books.
“I thought it was one of Chavez’s books,” Obama said. “I was going to give him one of mine.”
St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Stephenson King already had his own copy of Obama’s best-seller. King asked Obama to sign his copy of “Dreams From My Father” during the summit.
The publicity about the gift of the Galeano book helped propel it from relative obscurity to No. 13 on the Amazon.com list of best-sellers by Saturday night.
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The two-island nation is compact. But the speeches were not.
First came Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s fiery 50-minute speech that put the Summit of the Americas’ schedule in shambles on Friday evening. Then, leaders continued their longer-than-expected comments on Saturday.
It left the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago exasperated, a top White House adviser said.
“In one slightly humorous aside, after the first eight or nine speakers had completed their interventions, the chair, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, remarked on the fact that none of the speakers had stayed within their time limit,” economic adviser Larry Summers later told reporters. “And the president raised his hand and remarked that he had stayed within his time limit, and Manning acknowledged that that was indeed the case.”
Obama’s respect for the rules wasn’t enough to keep things moving.
“And I think after that, while not all rigorously adhered and stopped when the red light went up, there was somewhat greater order in the lengths of interventions,” Summers said.
The day’s schedule was updated several times to accommodate the verbose leaders.
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Obama’s main goal for his summit on the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago was winning over new allies. But he still found time for the United States’ neighbor to the north.
Journalists photographed Obama and Canadian Prime Minster Harper during an unscheduled meeting. The pair walked through a dining room on their way to the summit’s official photograph.
A Canadian journalist asked Obama he had gotten any tips from Canada during the one-on-one with Harper. Obama was brief: “I always take tips from Canada.”
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Logistics for foreign leaders didn’t exactly match the summit’s tropical paradise venue.
President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina had trouble getting into a meeting with her peers, with a crush of security and onlookers clogging her way. Finally, over shouting, someone called out from inside the room, “It’s Argentina.”
The Argentine president made her way into the meeting without mentioning the chaos that also delayed Chavez, who tumbled into the room as bodyguards guided him through the press scrum.
Obama noted the crowd of reporters and photographers, who shoved their way inside.
“I have a lot to learn and I very much look forward to listening and figuring out how we can work together more effectively,” Obama said. “So hopefully the meeting itself will go more smoothly than getting you guys in to take pictures.”
More than 1,000 journalists packed into the 14-story host press center. Four elevators moved them throughout the building during daytime; at night, many were housed on cruise ships.
The journalists also packed plenty of frustration. Afternoon photo sessions were canceled because of the raucous scene in the hallways that included pushing, shoving, brawling and screaming by government officials and journalists.
Summit organizers temporarily banned media access to large gatherings, citing what they called a “lack of discipline by journalists.” Trinidad spokesman Felipe Noguera said some journalists were slow to leave summit events when asked and didn’t keep proper distance from leaders.
Instead, Noguera offered up verbal summaries of what leaders said. He also said typewritten remarks from leaders would be available on Sunday _ “hopefully.” The media center erupted in groans.
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One of Latin America’s most outspoken presidents is shrugging off the summit’s final declaration as something few people read. President Rafael Correa of Ecuador told reporters that leaders came here to get to know and exchange ideas with Obama.
“The topics are interesting,” Correa said. “The final declaration, not so much.”
He said getting leaders to sign such an innocuous document was like asking them if they loved their grandmother.
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Associated Press writers Mark S. Smith, Frank Bajak and Alan Clendenning contributed to this report.
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