PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday that he is pleased with the improvements in U.S. relations with Venezuela and Cuba, achieved during the Fifth Summit of the Americas.
"Let's be frank, everybody expected Chavez and Obama to fight each other. What happened? Exactly the opposite," Lula told a press conference shortly after the end of the summit. "Chavez said that it is not enough to be a commercial partner of the United States. He actually wants to be a friend of the United States."
Lula also recalled his attempts in the past years to mediate a truce between former U.S. president George W. Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
"I tried several times to set a meeting of Chavez and Bush. It was not possible, because Chavez is convinced it was Bush who plotted the coup attempt against him," said Lula, referring to the failed 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela.
"If Chavez had a serious problem in the Bush era, all that could be changed in the Obama era," added Lula.
During the summit, Obama and Chavez shook hands and the Venezuelan leader presented the U.S. president with a copy of Eduardo Galeano's book "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent."
As for the Cuban issue, Lula repeated that he believes this was the last Summit of the Americas without the presence of Cuba, saying that the path is paved for a direct dialogue between Cuba and the United States.
"If Obama names someone to negotiate with Cuba, as he did to negotiate with Iran, someone with the will to really negotiate, things will evolve," he noted.
"From the Patagonia to Mexico, the whole continent favors the entrance of Cuba in this summit. There is no longer an explanation for Cuba's exclusion," Lula said.
The Brazilian leader stressed he believes the summit's results were extremely positive: "I travel a lot around this continent and have constant meetings, and I should say the political atmosphere of this gathering was outstanding."
