President Barack Obama and Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla speak during a news conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama finished a three-day tour of Mexico and Costa Rica, praised the economic progress of Mexican and Central American leaders, and addressed poverty and security issues.
Obama spoke out for greater trade and economic cooperation with neighbors in the southern United States, arguing that economic prosperity is the best antidote to drugs and violence of criminal groups.
In his speech Saturday’s radio address, Obama also stated that deepening economic ties with Latin America means generating more jobs in America.
“One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in the United States to the world,” he said. “This includes our neighbors to the south”.
In Costa Rica, Obama urged American leaders to integrate their economies, reduce their high energy costs and take more steps to confront violence in the region.
“As a government, our job is to make sure we are doing all we can to provide security and opportunity as well as a path to success and prosperity of our people,” Obama said Friday before regional leaders at the beginning of a meal. “Economic growth creates jobs, security for people so that it can live safely in their neighborhoods, as well as development that enables people to live with dignity.”
Besides its economic objectives, the tour served to Obama to signal approval to the large Hispanic population in the United States, which greatly supported him in the elections of 2012 and retains strong family and cultural ties with Latin America.
“In fact,” he said Friday in a speech to young people in Mexico City, “without the strong support of Latinos, including many Americans of Mexican descent, I would not be now as president of the United States. That’s the truth “.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica
