Politics

Santiago –  U.S. President Barack Obama was full of praise for Chile during a one-day visit to the Andean nation, while Chilean counterpart Sebastian Piñera urged Washington to forge a new, non-paternalistic alliance with Latin America.

"Chile is one of the great success stories of this region. It's built a robust democracy. It's been one of the most open and fastest growing economies in the world," Obama said during a joint press conference with Piñera at La Moneda palace.

Asked by a Chilean reporter about Washington's role in the 1973 coup that toppled Chilean President Salvador Allende, Obama acknowledged that "the history of relations between the United States and Latin America have at times been extremely rocky and have at times been difficult."

"I think it's important," he added, "that we're not trapped by our history. And the fact of the matter is, is that over the last two decades we've seen extraordinary progress here in Chile and that has not been impeded by the United States but, in fact, has been fully supported by the United States."

In recent days Chilean unions, student organizations and leftist parties asked Obama to use his visit to Chile to apologize for the backing of the then-U.S. government for the coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Looking to the future, Obama proposed, as he repeated in his address later, an alliance of equals between his country and Latin America that would allow cooperation in such fields as student exchanges and the war on drugs.

For his part, Piñera asked for an alliance of equals, in which all have obligations and responsibilities, "not simply a mutual-aid alliance...but one of collaboration between Latin America and the United States, which share the same values, principles and vision."

The Chilean president used the occasion to ask that this new alliance also "open the way to genuine free trade."

In that regard he asked Obama Tuesday for his country to expand the current free-trade pact with Chile, and that it ratify the accords entered into with Colombia and Panama.

Obama expressed his readiness to "fully implement" the U.S.-Chile trade pact.